The SWAP Team
by InAthena'sCabin
Summary: Percy and Annabeth's relationship blooms. But what happens when we add in a mischievous goddess and a lonely satyr? I'll tell you, Freaky Friday isn't THAT freaky. Sort of a sequel to my first fic 'Come what may'. Rated T for minor sexuality. Nothing big.
1. The Date Once Ruined

**Hey y'all! Athena's cabin welcomes you to another trip with our beloved Percy Jackson and his crew. It's going to be much different to my first fic 'Come what may', but will refer to it occasionally, so I suggest you read it before reading this, just to be able to understand certain parts. A special thank you to percabeth-atic-hehe, who gave me such an inspiring review, that despite all my homework (seriously, the pile grows as I write. It almost reaches the ceiling now...) I started to write another fic and to Daughter Of Poseiden, who gave the idea for this story! Pretty much Percabeth, but we'll see another love story developing... If you have read my other fic you might even guess who's love story it might be!**

**My very sad mission is to inform you, that despite how much I wanted, I do NOT own PJO. It's still Rick Riordan's property. **

**Okay, that's enough babbling. Enjoy, darlings!**

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Percy's POV**

"Percy, hurry up! You're going to be late, honey!" I heard mom shout from the kitchen.

She had a point. I had been preparing for hours now and I'd soon have to leave if I wanted to be there in time.

What's going on? Well, on my first day at Goode (which wasn't even a real school day, but an orientation) mine and Annabeth's movie plans were trashed by she-demons and Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Now, two years after that incident, Annabeth and I had decided to give it another go.

I was excited. I hadn't seen her in weeks. When the summer had come to its end, and I went to start my junior year at Goode, Annabeth had gone to her all-girls school and had spent all her free time making drafts for Olympus. They were still unfinished. Annabeth wanted everything to be perfect.

So yeah, I was excited to see her again. I had missed her more than ever. Last summer had changed our lives permanently. I still couldn't believe our parents had actually given us their blessing. She was mine to love.

"Percy, darling! You have to go!" mom yelled again.

I took a look at my watch, which said I had two minutes before I should be in the car. I jumped at how long I had spent in my room and bathroom preparing for our date. I'd brushed my teeth extra-carefully and tried (emphasis on the word 'try') to make my hair look neat. After trying on millions of clothes, I had chosen to wear a button-down light blue shirt and black jeans. I didn't want to be overdressed, but I wanted to look smart for my girl.

I ran to say goodbye to mom and Paul, who smiled at my enthusiasm, and then I sprinted out of our apartment, down the stairs and in my brand new car, which mom and Paul had given me for my seventeenth birthday. I loved the car. It was a Volvo C30, which Paul's friend, who was very good with cars, had painted blue and it had a silver trident on the hood. It was awesome.

It took a good twenty minutes to get to the Empire State Building. I would pick Annabeth up from there and give her a ride to the movie theater. She was working on her designs on Olympus today. I stopped the car in front of the tower. I was there just in time. I didn't have to wait more than ten seconds before I saw a tall girl come out of the building, holding a black Converse bag, her blonde, curly hair let loose. My girl. I felt a jolt in my stomach and my heart started to dance tarantella.

"Nice ride, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth smiled as she opened the shotgun door and climbed in.

I couldn't do anything but grin. I had almost forgotten how breathtakingly beautiful she was.

"Earth calling Percy!" Annabeth laughed and waved her hand before my eyes.

"Sorry, I just..." I mumbled.

Annabeth leaned toward me and pressed her lips on mine. Suddenly my brain started to work faster. I could remember what I'd planned to say to her. But I didn't care about it now.

I stroked Annabeth's smooth hair and secured her face to mine. Her lips moved from my lips to my jaw and ventured up to my ear.

"It's good to see you," she said and pulled away.

"You too, Annabeth," I said and took her hand in mine.

"We'd better get going or we'll miss the film," Annabeth reminded me and I started the car.

The ride to the movie theater was too short in my opinion. I loved those moments, when I had Annabeth all to myself. I wish every moment would be one of those. During the ride we caught up with each other. I had basically nothing to say, since school was boring and nothing had happened to me since we'd last seen each other. Annabeth on the other hand had a lot to tell me. Her grey eyes lit as she described all the complicated structures she had designed and the new 3-D design course she had taken up at school.

As usual, I understood nothing about the architectural terms she used, but I didn't mind. I loved listening to her talk.

I parked the car on the movie theater parking lot and got out of the car. I went to Annabeth's side of the car and wrapped my arm around her waist as we started to walk toward the entrance.

"Two to Inception, please," I said to the middle-aged man in the ticket booth.

I had let Annabeth pick the movie. I should have known she would choose something complicated and mind stimulating.

We bought some popcorn and went to our seats. Luckily we had gotten pretty good seats and we could actually see the screen. You know those times when some really tall guy sits in front of you and you can't possibly see anything and after the movie has ended you are left wondering what the movie was about? Yeah, it more or less sucks.

Before the movie started Annabeth and I concentrated on only each other. The room was dimly lit and we took advantage of it. Our lips moved in sync against each other. Annabeth's both hands were in my hair, tugging my face closer to hers. My hands caressed her face and neck. It was then when I realized how much I had missed her during the past weeks.

When the opening credits started to play, our kiss broke.

"I've missed you, Percy," Annabeth whispered and leaned her head against my shoulder. I kissed her hair.

"Me, too," I said.

The movie was actually pretty good. I didn't get most of it, but the parts I understood were great. We especially enjoyed the character Ariadne, who was an architect **(I laughed my ass off in the theater when I went to see Inception. My friends didn't understand the joke though...)**. Annabeth was ecstatic about the worlds of dream she created.

After the film Annabeth started to babble about the structures she'd found in the movie she could actually develop and use in her designs.

"So, what shall we do now?" she finally asked when we had reached my car.

"Hmm, dunno. Any ideas?" I said.

"I don't mind. But I'd rather do something with you," she said and touched my nose with the tip of her index finger. I laughed heartily and kissed her quickly.

"How about going to my place? Mom is dying to see you," I suggested.

"Sure!" Annabeth said and we climbed into the car.

I was quite nervous. Mom hadn't seen Annabeth since we'd officially started dating and I wasn't sure how mom would react. Don't get me wrong, she adores Annabeth. I just couldn't know what she would say. Would she giggle and pull stupid jokes? Would she go all 'oh, just call me Mom'? I couldn't tell. And I had no idea what Paul would do. He hadn't seen Annabeth. I had talked of her at home, of course, so basically he knew who Annabeth was, but he'd never met her in person. I had some minor butterflies in my stomach and they grew along the way to our apartment.

"Are you alright, Percy?" Annabeth asked when I parked the car in front of our house. She cocked her head to the side slightly.

"Yeah, why?" I asked. My voice sounded high-pitched.

"You're sweating bullets," she said and took my hand in hers and traced soothing circles on the back of my hand.

"Well, I'm actually pretty nervous," I said.

Annabeth laughed.

"Why in Hades, Seaweed Brain? Your mom has seen me before!" she said.

"Yeah, but not as my girlfriend," I noted.

Annabeth ruffled my hair.

"You're silly. Let's go," she said and got out of the car. I followed her in the house and up the stairs to our door.

Behind my front door we stopped. I looked at Annabeth.

"I love you, you know that?" I said and pulled her closer to me by her waist. She pressed her forehead against mine.

"Yup. It's nice to hear it, though. I love you, too," she replied and sealed the statement with a kiss.

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Annabeth's POV**

We stayed quite a while behind Percy's door, kissing. I hadn't seen him in weeks and I can't even describe how happy I was to get him back. I had missed him so much. Everything of him: his cute face with sea green eyes, that couldn't see anything, particularly people's feelings, his voice saying my name and telling he loved me, his arms around me, his scent I got to inhale every time he held me and I snuggled to his chest, his lips on mine, sometimes rough, sometimes soft, but always so loving. Him, just being there for me whenever I needed him.

After gods know how many minutes of kissing I broke the kiss. Despite loving Percy and wanting to kiss him all the time, I was curious about how Percy was going to present me as his girlfriend to his mother and Paul.

"You ready, Seaweed Brain?" I asked and raised my eyebrow.

"No way. Let's go," Percy said and opened the door.

"Hey! I'm home!" he yelled as we stepped in.

Sally came to the kitchen door and smiled widely.

"Hello, Annabeth!" she said and walked to us to give me a hug.

I had always liked Percy's mom. She was just the kind of mother I would've wanted when I was a kid. Just the one I never had.

Paul appeared in the living room and greeted us with a smile. This was the first time I saw him in person. From what I'd heard of him, he seemed nice. He even looked cool. Sort of movie star-like.

"Great to see you again, Mrs. Jacks... errm, Blofis," I said, remembering, that Sally and Paul had recently got married.

Sally smiled.

"You too, darling. It's nice to see you are alive and kicking," she said.

"Mmhm," I said. I wasn't sure what to say. Percy was staring awkwardly at his toes.

"So... I hear there's something new with you two," Sally said, looking back and forth from me to Percy.

That was when Percy pulled himself together and raised his stare from his feet.

"Yeah, errm... Mom and Paul, I'd like you to meet... well you've met her before, but you know what I mean... In any case, my girlfriend," he said, blushing. I took his hand in mine.

If it hadn't been considered unorthodox in that situation, I would've laughed at Percy's stuttering. He was so cute when he tried to be the perfect boyfriend, which he was even when he didn't try to be one. I enjoyed watching his effort, though. It made me feel special.

Paul stepped forward, offering his hand for me to shake. I shook his hand.

"I'm glad Percy has found someone as bright as you, Annabeth. From what I've heard, you're just the person to keep him out of trouble," he said, grinning.

"That's going to be a full-time job, but I will try," I replied.

Percy made a face of dramatic outrage.

"Percy, honey. You have to admit you are quite trouble prone," said Sally.

We all laughed, including Percy. Everyone knew how easily he got into sticky situations.

When the formal part of 'meeting the parents' was over, Sally invited me to stay over for dinner. Paul, who was apparently a good cook had made pizza. I was delighted, of course. Being with Percy's family was always been something I enjoyed. It felt like being at home, but in a different way than at camp, where I considered my home to be.

After dinner Percy and I went to his room. It hadn't changed a bit since I'd last been there. And it was messy. Percy seemed ashamed of himself.

"Sorry about the mess," he said when I sat on his bed. "I wasn't prepared for special guests."

"I'm a 'special guest'?" I asked.

"You are the most special ever," said Percy and he sat beside me, touching my arm with his hand. His touch sent shivers down my spine.

Over the summer I had realized how much I actually loved Percy. Just before summer had ended I had discovered a completely new way how he appealed to me. It was different of all things I'd ever felt: want. The feeling had frightened me at first. I didn't want to submit to my own lust and jeopardize our relationship, but I couldn't help myself; when I was with Percy, I more or less lost myself to him. His every touch made me burn inside and want more. I wasn't sure if he had a similar feeling, but I started to think we should talk about it. About what we wanted.

I looked at Percy. He was looking at me with an absentminded smile on his face.

"What?" I asked him.

Percy blinked.

"Oh, nothing," he said.

"Seriously, you were just staring at me," I said. I knew him too well to believe he was thinking about nothing.

"I like looking at you," Percy said. "You are the most amazing girl ever."

I blushed. I always did when Percy complimented me.

"You're not that bad either," I said and shifted closer to him.

I leaned my head on Percy's shoulder. He had grown taller than me, which I knew he was a bit smug of. I had always been taller than him and it had bugged him.

I inhaled the scent of his skin and sighed of contentment.

"Since when did you use perfume?" I asked and pressed my lips on Percy's throat.

I planted little kisses up his neck all the way to his lips. He smiled.

"Since now. I decided to put some effort in tidying myself up for you," he said and pulled me on his lap so that I faced him.

Our lips met again and my fingers wound into Percy's hair. His hands rubbed my back.

Immediately an electric current started to flow through my body. My brain seemed to unhinge and start spinning around in my head. I felt a tugging sensation in my lower stomach.

I wrapped my legs around Percy's waist. He pulled me closer to his body. Gods, I was lost again.

Suddenly Percy let out a small groan and slowly pulled his face away from mine.

"What's wrong?" I asked him. This wasn't something he did often. Had I done something wrong?

"No, no, Annabeth. It's just that... well..." Percy said and blushed scarlet.

"What? Percy, we are supposed to be able to talk about things," I said, unwrapped my legs from his waist and sat beside him on the edge of his bed.

"Tell me," I said as softly as I could.

My heart was beating wildly. What if there was something wrong with me? What if I had gone too far and he didn't want me? I mentally slapped myself. It wasn't normal for me to be so unsure of myself. Falling in love had changed me a lot. I wasn't sure if I liked it, but I loved Percy and I wouldn't change that for the world.

"Um, it's pretty weird," he said. That made me suspicious. What could be in his mind?

"I can handle weird," I said, trying to keep my face straight. "You're worrying me."

"Okay, here's the thing: you drive me crazy. I only can think about you. I'm afraid I can't stop myself if I go too far with you."

Okay, now the subject was on the table. But I didn't know what to say.

"I know, I'm a perverted creep," Percy said. He wasn't looking at me anymore.

I turned his face toward me. I could tell he felt ashamed of himself. Silly thing. He wasn't the only one getting carried away.

"That works the other way round too, you know," I said and smiled slightly. "Whenever you touch me... well..." I shrugged. "I can't help it. So you might be a perverted creep, but you're _my _perverted creep and I wouldn't have it any other way."

"So... What are we going to about it?" Percy asked. "I don't want to risk us. I don't want to hurt you."

"Don't worry, Percy. We have known each other for years and we can talk about things. Besides, I'm a big girl already and I think I can take care of myself even if a son of Poseidon tries to have his way with me. I don't mean I wouldn't want it, too, but..." my smile grew even wider.

"You would regret it later. We're young. But yeah, I guess you can take care of yourself, even if you are just a daughter of Athena," Percy said and a his eyes sparkled.

"Excuse me?" I asked with fake anger. Inside I was glad that we had been able to talk this through. And I have to admit, the fact that I appealed to Percy as much as he did to me made me feel pretty good about myself.

"You heard me, Wise Girl," Percy grinned and stuck his tongue at me. He could be such a kid sometimes!

"I'll wound you!" I threatened and knocked him over on his bed.

"Wanna bet?" he asked, lifting his head to look at me.

I grabbed his pillow and threw it at him.

"Hey! That's unfair!" Percy yelled, sat up and pouted. He looked so adorable!

"Aww, Seaweed Brain, stop looking so cute!" I whined and leaned my forehead against his.

"I can't help it," he grinned and kissed me again.

"So, do you have any plans for the weekend?" he asked when he pulled away for some air.

"Not really. I'm gonna have to go shopping for some new clothes, but apart from that, I'm free," I said. I wondered if Percy had something specific in mind.

"Well would you like to hang out tomorrow?" he asked. "I could get used to having you over all the time."

"Hmm..." I played thoughtful. "Well, since I have nothing else..."

"Great to know I'm so high on your list," said Percy. I nudged him in the ribs.

"I'd love to do something with you tomorrow, silly!" I cried out.

Suddenly something occurred to me. I glanced at Percy's watch.

"Oh, Hades!" I cried and jumped up. "I'm supposed to help Kathy with her Algebra! I'd better hurry or she'll kill me!"

"Do you want a ride?" Percy asked.

"Oh, thank you!" I said, kissed him quickly and darted out of his room. He followed me.

In the living room I almost bumped into Paul.

"Leaving so soon, Annabeth?" he asked.

"Unfortunately I have to tutor my roommate," I said.

"Oh, well, it was good to finally meet you," he said and shook my hand.

"Are you leaving already?" came Sally's voice from the kitchen. She rushed to us and hugged me.

"Yes. Thank you for inviting me for dinner," I said.

"You are always welcome here, honey," said Sally.

"Thanks," I said again. I couldn't help but marvel at the way she welcomed people in her home.

"Are you going to give her a ride, Percy?" Paul asked.

"Yup," Percy answered and wrapped his arm around my waist.

"Goodnight, Annabeth!" Sally said as Percy and I walked through the door.

On the ride back to my school we talked about what we would do tomorrow. Percy suggested we could go visit camp, which was a pretty good idea, so we decided that Percy would pick me up from my school in the morning. The ride was too short for my taste and soon we were on the school campus, close to my dorm building.

"Sweet dreams," Percy said after kissing me goodbye.

"You too. I love you," I said and stroked his cheek once.

"I love you," he replied and I got out of the car.

Kathy was already waiting for me inside.

"Sorry I'm late! I completely forgot the time!" I apologized to her.

"Chill, I'm glad you had fun," she said and smiled.

Kathy was a really caring and easy going person. We had shared the same room for a year and during that time become pretty close. She was a bit plump and way shorter than me and had black hair and olive skin. She was part Bulgarian, which I found fascinating. She knew about Percy and had given me some advice on dating, since she had a lot of experience in that matter. She and his boyfriend Will had been dating for three years now. I hadn't told Kathy about us being demigods, because even though we were close, I wasn't sure if her understanding would reach to things most people considered as myths.

"How was Percy doing?" Kathy asked as she rummaged through her things, tying to find her Algebra book. She wasn't one of the most neat people, but terrific all the same.

"He was fine," I said. "Gosh, I missed him."

I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell Kathy about what Percy and I had discussed earlier.

"I bet. I couldn't stand not seeing Will for weeks," Kathy sighed. "HA! Found it!"

She slammed the mammoth-sized book on her bed and we went to work.

That evening I fell asleep soon, happy to know I would see Percy again in the morning.

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Percy's POV**

After dropping Annabeth off I wanted to have some time alone, so I decided to stay driving around the city. I had had a wonderful day and about one thing I was very glad of: Annabeth and I had had the Talk. It had been bothering me, because I had felt really filthy about myself whenever I kissed her. Now I was calm. Apparently Annabeth had the same problem, if you could call it that. Yet somewhere in my mind a little voice wondered if, now that we both wanted each other this way, we could maybe do something about it, besides talking. I silenced the thought quickly. We were young. There would be time for us to develop our relationship before getting to the point where we would... Even the thought of it made my stomach lurch.

This was going to become hard to control.

When I finally came home it was quite late.

"Where have you been, honey?" Mom asked when I walked into the living room where she sat and watched Desperate Housewives – a TV-show she had developed an obsession on.

"Driving," I said. I didn't want to tell her what I'd been driving around for.

"Gas costs, you know," she said without lifting her gaze from the screen.

"Yeah. I'll pay some of it myself. I'm going to bed. Night!" I said and rushed to my room.

I lounged myself on my bed, my feet dangling over the edge. I thought about Annabeth. I would see her again tomorrow and we would be off to camp. I was looking forward to it.

Since there was nothing for me to do, I decided to go to bed. I took my clothes off, leaving only my boxers on and curled under my blanket. I was so anxious, that it took me long to get to sleep, but when I did fall asleep, I dreamed happily.

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Wehee, that was the first chapter of my second fic! I know, I'm a bit rusty, but don't worry. I have a lot of tricks in my sleeve.**

**I enjoy reviews.**

**Athena's cabin wishes you a good night!**

**Peace, love, PJO!**

**Luv,**

**AC**


	2. SWAPped

**Hey guys! Thanks for all your delicious reviews! Even with the first chapter I got awesome visiting rates, which I'm really glad of! And I'm super sorry about the major delay (6 months... I feel ashamed)! I know I've pulled this card out many times before, but I still blame school for this. How many of you people are doing IB diploma? Then you know what I mean :D Btw, has anyone seen Scott Pilgrim vs. The World? It's pretty awesome sauce! Okay, back to the story:**

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**Annabeth's POV**

When I woke up the first thing I noticed that was wrong, was the ceiling. It was the wrong color. The dorm ceiling was dull white, but the ceiling I now faced was wood. I tilted my head right and faced a very familiar room. Why was I in Percy's room? What had happened yesterday? Why did I still have the memory of Percy giving me a ride to campus and after that I'd helped Kathy with Algebra? If I was in Percy's room, then were was Percy? These questions spun in my head and I tried to figure out what was going on.

I sat up and the blanket fell off me. The contact of air with the bare skin of my body made me jump. I looked down at my body and choked back a scream. I was bare chested, that was for sure. But the most disorienting thing was, that during the night my boobs had apparently disappeared.

"Di immortales," I whispered, observing the well-trained muscles that had replaced my breasts.

I jumped at my voice, which was one I knew almost too well. What had happened to me?

I stood up quickly and realized, that the changes in my body were not limited to the absence of breasts: my whole body had transformed into a man's. I was only wearing black boxers. My hands flew in my hair. Well, technically it wasn't _my_ hair. This was all short and... manly.

I shot to the mirror to take a look at myself. If the situation hadn't been so terrifying, I might've even been curious about all that had happened, but now my only desire was to see the extent of the damage. I looked into the mirror and saw a boy's face, framed by a hurly burly of black hair. His chin (I didn't want to think about it as _my_ chin) had a little stubble on it. I'd have to shave it before leaving the house. I didn't like the appearance of a man with a beard. It made them look untidy. Finally, after avoiding it, I faced my reflection from eye to eye. Framed by thick black lashes, my terrified eyes shone sea green.

"Oh my gods!" I whispered.

Then something occurred to me.

If I was in Percy's body, then where was Percy?

I had a theory, but I didn't want to believe it. Still I decided to give it a try. I searched for Percy's cell phone. It wasn't hard to find, since his jeans he'd worn yesterday were on the floor. I took his cell phone and with shaky hands I found my number from the contact list.

Then I pressed the green button.

After a few beeps an unsure voice answered:

"Umm... Annabeth speaking?"

My stomach gave a jolt. I had been right.

"Percy, is that you?" I asked.

"Annabeth?" came my voice from the other end.

In a way I was glad. We were in this together. Still, I wasn't sure if I liked Percy being in my body... But now that I had found out it was Percy in the other end, I could ask the question, that had been bothering me:

"What has happened to us?"

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**Percy's POV**

I noticed immediately that something was off. First of all, the room I faced when I opened my eyes was nowhere near familiar to me. It was much too clean and I didn't remember having two beds in my room. Never mention someone else snoring in the other bed. As I sat up I realized I had pajamas on. I found that very disturbing, since I never wore pajamas. I slept in my boxers. As I took a look at my chest and stomach, I saw that they were covered by a simple gray cotton tank top. That wouldn't have been that shocking, but there was something on the way that blocked the view of my stomach. Why in the name of Chaos did I have breasts? I could feel my eyes bulging in my head, and after staring at those extra body parts, I squished my eyes tight, and slumped on my back.

_'This is just a dream, Percy. Yes, you're dreaming. You don't have boobs! That's just silly!'_ I thought to myself.

I sat back up, opened my eyes, and looked at myself again. They were still in place.

"This cannot be a good start for a day," I muttered to myself. I'd had my share of bad starts, and this definitely was one.

Even my voice sounded weird. It was higher than my real voice, and even from a whisper I could tell that it was beautiful.

Quietly, so that I wouldn't wake up that unfamiliar snoring person I was apparently sharing a room with, I stood up and looked at my legs. My heart jolted in a way that felt like it was doing somersaults, jumping jacks, and cartwheels at the same time. My legs were almost bare, apart from short black cotton shorts. That wasn't the weirdest part. The thing was that those legs weren't actually _mine_. They were smooth, hairless, and somehow less masculine than they should've been. I felt like I'd seen those legs before, but I couldn't wrap my mind around whose legs I had attached to my body. Then it hit me; this wasn't my body at all. This was someone else's, and I was sure that someone was missing her (Yes, it was a woman's body. I had _breasts_ for Hades' sakes!) body very much.

This super surprise in the morning had given me a need to use the bathroom, so I started to search for one. Thankfully, there were only two doors leaving away from that room I was then. I was starting to believe that it was a girl's dorm room, since it had banners on one wall, school books lying around, and it was way too un-homey to be someone's bedroom. I opened one of the two doors, and concluded it to be the wrong one, because what I found behind that door was a nearly empty hallway.

Yes, _nearly_ empty.

"Good morning," whispered a petite redhead, who'd spotted me peering out the door.

I wasn't sure what to say, but I just decided to go with:

"Morning."

Hearing my odd voice again triggered my brain. Oh, my gods, it couldn't be!

Thank the gods, the girl didn't decide to stay and chat, but just went along. I was just about to close the door when another one opened and a black haired emo punk greeted me with a smile.

"Hi, Annabeth!" she whispered. "What are you doing in your pajamas at this hour? Usually you're on your way to work by now."

I couldn't say anything. I just stared at that person who had just called me 'Annabeth'. I'd had my doubts, but now those doubts were confirmed. Oh, dear Styx, what had happened to me?

The girl waved her hand at me.

"Wakie wakie! Are you still asleep or what?" she asked with a dubious expression.

I had to say something.

"Oh, errm... Sorry. I'm still a bit drowsy, I guess. I'll just..." I trailed off, backed up, and closed the door.

I hoped I didn't ruin Annabeth's reputation.

I rushed to the second door, and surprisingly enough, found the bathroom. The first thing I saw was the mirror. Unfortunately.

"Agh!" I yelped, and then cringed. Had I woken the anonymous person up? I listened for a while, but heard nothing, so I turned my gaze to the mirror again. As I had suspected, my head was covered with tangled blonde hair, my skin was smooth with no sign of facial hair, and stormy grey eyes stared back at me from the mirror with horror. I touched my face, mesmerized. How could've this happened?

Then I remembered the reason why I'd been looking for the bathroom in the first place. I was just about to pull down the black shorts I was wearing, when I realized that I probably wouldn't have my normal body parts. I could feel my cheeks getting scarlet as I tried hard to think about anything else than the fact that I might have... How should I say it? A hole instead of a pole? I didn't know, but I felt awkward to say the least.

_'Father, if this is some kind of a practical joke from you, I'm telling you now: this isn't funny!'_ I prayed to my dad. It didn't seem like him though. He wasn't the joking kind. But I didn't find anyone else to blame either.

The need to use the bathroom grew as I just stood there, afraid of pulling my pants down. I felt like if I did, I would violate Annabeth's body or something. And then there were those breasts. I realized that in order to get out of the dorms I would need to change. That would mean undressing, and using a bra, both of which were things that I didn't necessarily want to do.

I couldn't make myself use the toilet, so I crept out, back to the dorm room. The other person was still asleep. I wasn't sure about what to do. I felt stuck. There was no way of going out without changing my clothes. Then again, I just couldn't take my (it felt very weird, considering these clothes on me 'my' clothes. But what else I could've called them?) clothes off.

Suddenly I heard a relatively loud ringtone coming from a familiar black Converse bag lying on the floor. Afraid that the other person in the room would wake up, I quickly grabbed the bag and rummaged through it to find the phone. It wasn't hard to find, because there weren't much stuff in Annabeth's bag. The silver cell phone lay in the bottom of the bag, vibrating and playing some song I'd never heard before. I glanced at the screen and didn't know if it was a good or a bad thing that the words, "Percy Jackson calling" were flashing on it.

_'If I'm trapped in Annabeth's body, who would be this person who's calling from my phone? Annabeth? That would be ok, I guess. What if it's Mum? What will I say?'_ I thought for a fraction of a second.

Then I pressed the answer button.

"Umm... Annabeth speaking?" I answered, feeling very awkward and unsure of how to act.

"Percy? Is that you?" came a voice from the other end, with a tinge of confusion.

So this wasn't me speaking in the other end.

"Annabeth?" I asked. If it was her, I might survive from this. She could give me tips on how to be her.

There was a short break, and then my voice answered back, but the confusion in the voice was now replaced by fear.

"What has happened to us?"

Thank the gods, it was Annabeth! I felt relieved. Yet, hearing my own voice coming from the phone was disturbing. It felt like I was talking to myself, and I answered back. Talking about creepy. But Annabeth had asked a very good question.

"I don't know," I answered, because I really didn't know what else to say.

"I feel weird," said Annabeth. So this is how I sound to other people! The voice was more childlike than my voice had sounded to me. I recalled it being because my own skull made my voice sound deeper to me.

"Me too, to say the least," I whispered.

"Why are you whispering? Where's Kathy? Is she there?" Annabeth asked.

Oh, so this was Kathy, the girl Annabeth helped in Algebra.

"Yeah, she's asleep. I'm not sure for how long she will be like that though. I'd like to get out before she wakes up. I don't know how to be you," I answered.

Annabeth laughed. Woah, it sounded weird!

"I know what you mean. Errm... If your mother sees me, what should I say?"

Again, a very good question. Would she freak out? I doubted that, because she already knew that weird things happened to demigods all the time.

"What do you think? I'm not sure," I said.

"I think... That we should talk to Chiron first."

I was so glad Annabeth was a daughter of Athena! Without her brain, we would've been lost millions of times, including this.

"Yes, you're right. We need to talk to Chiron. Can you come and pick me up from your campus?" I asked.

"Umm, sure. But I don't have a driver's license. I just started my lessons. I didn't have enough money until recently," said Annabeth.

That was true. She'd worked her butt off on Olympus and the gods had been so pleased with her designs that they had paid for her driving school. Then I had an idea.

"You have my license there. And I'm sure that you of all people should know how to use a car, right?"

I was pleased with myself and wished Athena had been keeping her tabs on me right then. I wanted to prove her that I could do some thinking myself, and that I wasn't worth nothing.

"Percy, that's a good idea! I'm so proud of you," my voice said from the other end. I wasn't sure if Annabeth was using my voice in a girly way, but my voice didn't sound as masculine as I would've liked it to sound.

"See, I'm smart!" I said, and inside my head laughed at the combination of Annabeth's voice and those words that had just come out of my mouth.

Annabeth didn't laugh inside her head. My voice laughed in the other end, and said,

"Gods, that was weird. My own voice saying that she's smart! By the way, is that really how I sound? I sound like a little girl!"

"No you don't. You sound like a young woman," I said truthfully. She sounded very mature to me.

"Thank you," said Annabeth smugly.

"Okay, back to business. How am I going to get out of here? And when are you going to be picking me up?" I asked.

"Well, I'll be there in thirty minutes. I'll meet you in the parking lot where you dropped me off yesterday, remember?" Annabeth said.

"Yeah. But you didn't answer my first question. How am I supposed to get out? I'm wearing your pajamas and to get out I have to face trillions of girls who know you!" I said, afraid of what was waiting for me outside this room.

"Well, obviously you have to change. You can't go out without proper clothes..." Annabeth started, but trailed off. She must've realized what me changing clothes would include.

"Are you still there Annabeth?" I asked after a while of silence.

"Yeah, sorry. Umm... Are you familiar with a bra?" she asked.

Oh gods, this was about to become even more embarrassing than it already was.

"Well, it seems pretty easy. I'm sure I can figure it out," I said.

"Well, then it's okay. Just change your clothes, take my bag with you, and get out of there. If you could do that before Kathy wakes up, it would be good."

"I can't change my clothes! I feel weird and creepy already, never to mention after I've undressed your body and all that. Can't I just sneak out with your pajamas on?" I blurted out. I hadn't been planning to bring up the fact that I felt like violating her.

"Oh... Yeah, you have a point there. Well, you could always use my cap!" Annabeth said.

"Well, I didn't think I'm never going to say this, but I love your mother!" I said and felt like jumping of joy.

"That's settled then. The cap is in my wardrobe. Take some clothes and my bag with you, and come outside. I'll be there in 30 minutes. Don't forget to take underwear! See you soon. Love you!"

"No, wait! I really-"

She hung up.

"... need to use the bathroom," I sighed to myself and dropped the phone in Annabeth's bag.

So, I had a half an hour to gather up some stuff and get out. That was plenty of time. I walked to the wardrobe that was closer to Annabeth's bed and opened it. There, on one shelf was her Yankees cap of invisibility, a gift from her mother. I took it in my hands, and under it I saw her bronze knife, another gift, but this one was from Luke, an old friend of hers. It had played a big role in the second titan war, which my friends and I had participated in a bit over a year ago. I decided to take it with me, in case something happened. Then I remembered my own weapon, Riptide. It was supposed to follow me wherever I went. Had it followed me here, even though my body was still in my apartment? I looked around me and saw a heap of clothes on the floor next to Annabeth's bed. I recognized the shirt she'd worn on our date. I took her trousers and searched the pockets. Nothing there. Apparently Riptide was bound to my body, not my _animus_, my soul. I went back to the wardrobe to get some clothes. Since I knew practically nothing about women's normal dress code, I decided to go with a pair of normal jeans, Annabeth's Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, and socks. The socks I put on, because in order to wear those I wouldn't have to take anything off. I found a pair of Nikes and put them on.

Then I recalled Annabeth saying something about underwear.

_'Oh, gods, this is not my day,'_ I thought when I opened a drawer in Annabeth's wardrobe which contained a variety of bras and underpants. I didn't want to look at them too closely because I felt very, _very_ awkward about it, so I just grabbed a bra and a pair of underpants and threw them into Annabeth's bag. Then I checked the time. I still had fifteen minutes. What to do, what to do? I decided just to go out and wait in the parking lot. I put Annabeth's cap on, took her bag which now contained a whole lot of clothes and her knife, and walked out of the dorm.

I immediately felt glad about having the cap on, because the corridor was packed with giggling, chattering, and walking girls. I had to watch where I went so I wouldn't cause any panic if I accidentally stepped on someone's toes or ran into someone. Slowly but surely I made my way through the corridor and out of the dorm building.

The parking lot was empty. Every car had gone. I had a feeling that every student had gone to work. It was the weekend after all, so this would be the time when the 17-year-olds were flipping over patties in hamburger places or sweeping floors in Walmart. I stood by the corner of the dorm building, swinging the bag in my hands. All of a sudden two men walked into the view from around the corner of another building, which I assumed to be the gym based on the windows that were high on the walls, almost in touch with the roof. The men talked in a hushed tone and walked towards me. There was something suspicious about them, but I couldn't think about a reason why I felt that way. They wore green overalls, so they must've been the school's janitors or something. One of them had an ugly blue cap with a logo of some petrol station on it. The other one was bald and dangerously overweight. As they got closer, I could hear what they were talking about.

"...haven't had a decent meal in weeks," I heard the fat one say. Yeah, right. Looks like it.

"...have learned to stay away from our hut. My teeth are itching for some young flesh," the other one said.

_'Oh Hades, here we go again,'_ I thought. I glanced at my watch. Funny, I haven't even noticed that Annabeth actually had one. Anyway, the watch said that I had five minutes until Annabeth would be there. I wasn't in the mood for fighting Fatty-Pants and Ugly-Cap at the moment. But maybe they wouldn't notice me if I just kept quiet.

You know when you see a person on the street that you really don't want to have a chat with and you just wish they wouldn't see you, but they do and you have no choice but to talk to them? Yeah, it sucks right?

The man with the cap stopped and grabbed the other by the arm.

"Stop," he said. "Can you smell something?"

They both sniffed the air and the hairs on my back stood as chills went through me.

_'Please don't notice me. Please don't notice me,'_ I thought, but as usual, I wasn't that lucky.

"Smells like young flesh!" said the fat one.

"And this is not human. This is something stronger," the other one said and both of them turned to look straight at me. I knew they couldn't see me, but they certainly could smell me. Thank goodness, I wasn't in my normal body. As a son of Poseidon, one of the Big Three, my real body would've smelled very strongly to those monsters.

"I know you're there somewhere, half-blood!" barked the fat guy.

"Yeah, just show yourself so we don't have to play hide-and-seek!" said the other one.

I slowly crouched, put the bag on the ground and took Annabeth's knife out of it. I hadn't had much training with knives, since the only weapon I'd ever had was Riptide (except for occasional bows, but I'd never been good with those), but I was glad to have at least something sharp to fight with.

Since a fight was inevitable, I straightened up, flexed my muscles a bit and shouted,

"Come and get me then!"

The janitor-monsters glanced all around them to find the source of my voice. I, on the other hand, jumped at Annabet's voice coming out of my mouth. It would take time to get used to that. I didn't know what kind of monsters these two were, so I concentrated hard to see through the mist. I needed to know if I wanted to defeat these dudes. I squinted my eyes and their forms started to change. Their complexion got paler, their legs disappeared from knees down, and changed into some kind of mist.

_'So, these must be ghosts or spirits or something,'_ I thought. If only Annabeth was here! She'd know what kind of spirits these two were. I checked the time. Five minutes.

_'Come on, Annabeth! Be early like you usually are, please!'_ I prayed silently, as if she'd hear me.

Suddenly Fatty-Pants shouted, "Over there! I can smell her!" and they both floated toward me in an immense speed. I raised the knife in my hand and swung it at them as they got close enough, but the blade went straight through them.

"Whoah, did you feel that, Ed?" Ugly-Cap asked. "Someone tries to use normal celestial bronze against us!"

The fat one, who apparently was called Ed, guffawed with laughter.

"Yeah, Ned, I did. What a stupid little half-blood. Doesn't she know that we can only be defeated with magical weapons?" he chuckled.

Ned smacked Ed on the head.

"Stupid! Now she knows that! I can't understand Hecate has kept you alive this long!" he scolded Ed.

Okay, so the knife would be of no help in this case. I came to the conclusion that the wisest thing I should do was run for my life until Annabeth would come. Thankfully, Ed and Ned were in the middle of an argument, so I took the bag off the ground, put the knife in it and flung it over my head and shoulder.

Then I ran.

I ran across the parking lot. My footsteps were loud enough to make Ed and Ned stop fighting and come after me. I thought about Camp Half-Blood and the obstacle courses we used to do sometimes, where we had to zig-zag, jump over things, and make steep U-turns to avoid the obstacles. That's what I did. The spirits/ghosts were fast, but a bit clumsy, so they couldn't make quick turns, so I in turn made quick turns and zig-zagged like never before. It would've been much easier without the bag and those two new body parts on my chest that kept bouncing around. It felt weird and very uncomfortable. I was starting to realize the importance of a bra.

I was so concentrated in making quick turns that I didn't see where Ed and Ned were chasing me to; straight towards a wall. I was cornered.

"Can't run away from us now, eh girl?" Ned grinned as they moved closer inch by inch.

I was sure that my days were numbered. I would die as a girl. I took some hope from the fact that the girl whose body I was in was the girl I loved.

Then a familiar blue car with a silver trident wheeled into the parking lot.

"Whatta?" Ed and Ned asked and turned to see who it was.

I took the chance and ran past them toward the car and shouted:

"Annabeth! Open the door!"

The ghost-spirit-things followed me as I ran for my life. The shotgun door opened just when I was about to reach the car and I jumped in and slammed the door shut. I didn't even look at the driver's seat, because I was too afraid of my followers.

"Drive! Go, go, go!" I shouted. Annabeth did as told and in a few seconds we were speeding out of the campus.

I took Annabeth's cap off my head and took a deep breath.

"Wow, that was an experience," I huffed and turned my head to look at Annabeth. Or, well, Annabeth in my body.

It was bizarre to look at myself from someone else's point of view. It was weird to think that that person who looked like me was actually my girlfriend. Annabeth grinned.

"You should see your face," she said. "And I'm very glad you had the cap on. You look hideous."

"I didn't know you cared about your appearance. After all, I've seen you after a week with no shower, with blood stains and dirt on your shirt," I noted.

"In public, I do care about how I look. At camp and during war, meh," Annabeth shrugged.

I couldn't understand how she could take all this so lightly. I didn't see any shock on her face. But well, she had always been the intellectual one. Maybe that had something to do with the level of freaking out.

"So, are we going to camp?" I asked after a minute of silence.

Annabeth nodded.

"Yes, we need to tell Chiron about this. But do you mind keeping this a secret from the others? Well, you can tell Grover if you like, but the other campers?" she asked.

I was more than happy agreeing with her. I didn't necessarily want to tell everyone I had to wear a bra nowadays. There was still something bothering me.

"Annabeth, I have your clothes with me. But how am I supposed to change into them?"

I was really confused, and it must've shown, because Annabeth took my hand and smiled.

"Don't worry, Seaweed Brain. I have a plan!"

* * *

**I don't have much to say right now :D I'm trying to publish chapters more often now, once a week maybe. I'll try not to let you down. Can't swear that upon the Styx though, because we all know what would happen if I broke the oath right? :) **

**Athena's Cabin is back on track and wishes you a lovely day!**

**Peace, Love, PJO!**

**Luv,**

**AC**

**(I just realized that the initials 'AC' could mean 'Athena's Cabin', but also 'Annabeth Chase' OR 'Alice Cullen'. :D Triple awesomeness!)**


	3. Changing clothes, sharing thoughts

**Hello again!  
****This was a pretty difficult chapter to write. Things were bouncing around in my head and I just couldn't get my thoughts in order. Those who have read my other fic 'Come What May' know a bit of what I'm talking about. Guess what? It's Valentine's Day! And that is why I want to wish everyone a happy Valentine's Day! To be honest, my own VD pretty much sucked. I was all alone. Thank gods I had this to write, so I wasn't completely workless today. My little sister, who is 13, had a date. I'm almost 17 and I didn't. Sometimes life just sucks (read: inferiority complex :D).  
Today's song is definitely 'Just the way you are' by Bruno Mars. It's been stuck in my head along with 'I just had sex' by The Lonely Island ft. Akon (which is a hilarious song, I gotta admit).**

**Wow, that's a lot of pre-story-babbling! This isn't like me. Oh well, enough of this. Enjoy the third chapter of 'The SWAP Team', my darlings!**

**

* * *

Annabeth's POV**

I was happy beyond any measure that Percy had a habit of sleeping in his boxers! When Percy had brought forth the question about him changing clothes, I'd gotten worried. I didn't want Percy to see me naked. Not that I didn't trust him, but I didn't feel comfortable about revealing my body to him just yet. I didn't have to worry about seeing Percy's... exotic parts, because I could just throw some clothes on. I didn't see Sally, nor Paul when I walked through Percy's apartment to get to the front door, which I was happy about. Even though they both knew about the hectic life of demigods, I wasn't sure if their understanding would go as far as me and Percy swapping bodies.

When I got out of the Blofis-Jackson's apartment building, I walked to Percy's car. I'd found his car keys from his jeans' pocket, and his driver's license from his wallet. I sat on the driver's seat and put the key in the ignition. I was really nervous, because I'd never driven a car before. I'd only done theory this far in my driving school. I had read about driving, and whenever I was in a car with someone, I paid attention to the driver to learn how to work the gear and all that.

_'Please let me survive this trip, Mum,'_ I prayed and turned the key. The car purred to life. I dug every little detail of what I knew about driving, and backed the car out of the parking space. Then I drove toward my school.

I have to say that I wasn't surprised when I found Percy from the parking lot with two Mormos after him. Mormos were servants of Hecate, the goddess of magic, and they couldn't be killed with any weapon that didn't have magic in it, so if Percy had been smart enough to take my knife with him, it wouldn't be of any help. When I arrived in the parking lot, I heard Percy shout,

"Annabeth! Open the door!"

I didn't know where he was at that moment, and I was momentarily stunned when I heard my own voice shout at me from somewhere, but I just decided to do what he asked me to, and open the shotgun door. Seconds later I felt something flung itself on the shotgun seat and slam the door shut.

"Drive! Go, go, go!" my voice spoke from beside me and I put the pedal to the metal and shot away from the parking lot, and my school.

_'Note to self: Get rid of Mormos when you get back,'_ I thought.

Beside me, Percy took my cap off his head. It was very disturbing to see myself sitting there, my hair tangled and untidy, dressed in my pyjamas. In my head I cursed myself for wearing such short pants as pyjama pants. Perhaps the most disturbing thing was the expression on Percy's face. He was obviously shocked. I didn't see myself looking shocked often, so seeing it now was interesting in a very peculiar way.

I made a comment about the face he wore, and his appearance in general. It would've been awful if he'd shown himself to someone. I cared what I looked like in front of mortals. At camp, I didn't give a gorgo's ass.

We decided to keep us swapping bodies a secret from everyone else, except from Chiron and Grover. Then Percy asked the question I'd been waiting for; how he was going to change into the clothes he had taken with him.

"Don't worry, Seaweed Brain. I have a plan," I said and smiled.

"Oh, what's that?" he asked, cocking his head to the side.

"In it's basic, you close your eyes, and I help you," I said, and took a look at Percy. His expression hadn't changed.

"Hmm, sounds easy enough," he said. I could tell he was feeling uncomfortable. I wished I could've helped him.

But there was something that bothered me very much.

You see, usually whenever I saw Percy, I felt a surge of love and affection and just wanted to kiss him and have his arms around me. But now, when I looked at him, I saw myself; a _girl_ for crying out loud. I knew it was him sitting there, but I didn't want to cuddle with him. That made me sad. Love wasn't supposed to be based on looks. But still, I felt something was lost inside me. A feeling that had been there yesterday, but not anymore.

We drove mostly in silence. When we drove out of the city of Manhattan, the silence had grown so unnerving, that I turned the radio on.

Then Percy asked,

"What's it like? Being me, I mean."

The question took me off guard. For a moment I wanted to yell at him about how stupid his question was. How did he think it felt, being trapped inside the body of a guy, never to mention the guy I was hopelessly in love with? This was a nightmare! I wanted my body, and my feelings back.

But I didn't say that to Percy. Instead I went with,

"It's really weird. Plus, I really need to use the bathroom."

It was true. After the phone call, I'd wanted to use the toilet, but I just couldn't make myself pull my boxers down. I really didn't want to see anything that wasn't absolutely necessary. Right now, though, I was starting to realize that I probably wouldn't be able to keep it in much longer.

Percy nodded.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I just don't want to harm you in any way," he said.

"Oh, Percy. That's sweet of you. But you don't have to worry about it. You can pee if you need to," I said. I didn't look at Percy. It felt too weird, hearing myself sweet-talk to me. I didn't want to _see_ myself too.

"Are you alright, Annabeth?" he asked then.

_'Oh, no. Not now when I'm really trying to stay calm,'_ I thought. I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell him everything that was going through my mind.

"I'm fine, Percy. Don't worry about me," I said sternly.

"Well, sorry that I'm worried about you," Percy snapped. Was that really how I sounded when I snapped at people? I felt horrible. I hadn't intended to hurt Percy. I was just confused and annoyed and gods know what at the same time. Why was it so hard for me to talk about it with him? As long as I didn't know the answer to that question, I just decided to try make things better.

"Hey, I'm sorry. I'm just confused. You know how much I like not having a clue," I said and allowed myself to look at Percy. He was staring strictly forward. Slowly he turned his head and took a deep breath.

"It's okay. I understand. I'm sorry I snapped at you," he said, those very familiar grey eyes soft pools of silver.

I was stunned. Did I really look like that when I talked to Percy? So soft and vulnerable. That just wasn't like me.

"It's... It's okay," I muttered and tore my gaze off those eyes.

The rest of the ride was quiet, except for the radio that was still on. When we arrived at the bottom of the Half-Blood Hill, I stopped the car and we both stepped out.

"Okay, put the cap back on. We'll go to the Big House, and I'll help you get dressed. Then we'll explain the situation to Chiron. Okay?" I told my plan to Percy.

He nodded.

"Sure thing. Let's go already. I feel weird in these super-shorts," he said and tried to pull the legs of my pyjama shorts a bit lower. No use.

"Alright. Oh, any tips in being you?" I asked. I wasn't sure if I could act like a Seaweed Brain.

Percy ruffled his hair.

"Umm, well, just walk a bit guy-like, you know? And you know how to do the manly hug thing?" he asked.

I'd seen Percy do it with Grover, and rappers do it in music videos. I was sure I could pull if off.

"Sure. Thanks. Let's go!" I said.

Percy flung my bag over his shoulder, put the cap on, and we climbed on top of the Half-Blood Hill. There, curled around Thalia's pine tree, was Peleus, our guard dragon. The golden fleece hung on the lowest branch, shimmering in the morning sun.

"Hello, Peleus! Have you been a good boy?" I asked, as usual. I really liked the young dragon.

I was about to scratch his cheek, but he let out a growl and snapped its teeth at me. I pulled my hand back quickly.

"What's wrong with you, Peleus? I thought we were friends," I asked the dragon.

"Umm, Annabeth?" Percy asked from beside me. "He isn't really into me. That might be it."

"Oh, yeah," I said. Of course Peleus wouldn't recognize me when I was inside Percy's body.

We continued down the hill, towards the big, sky blue building. I tried to act all manly, strutting my stuff.

"Annabeth?" Percy whispered.

"What?"

"I don't walk like that. You're trying too much. Just be normal. Trust my body. My muscles know how to work," he said and placed his hands on my shoulders.

Magically, I felt my muscles relax to his touch. Was this how Percy felt when I touched him?

"See?" Percy asked.

I nodded.

"Yeah."

We walked along and I didn't pay much attention to my walk. Percy said that I walked very masculinely. I supposed it was meant to be a compliment. As we got closer to the Big House, we started to see other campers; year-rounders, who didn't have anywhere else to go when the summer ended, or to whom the world outside camp was too dangerous. I tried not to get myself noticed, but being Percy had the downside that everyone knew him well.

"Percy! Back so soon!" I heard someone shout.

I turned my head towards the voice and saw Will Solace, a boy from Hephaestus cabin, run from the volleyball courts.

_'Here goes. Wish me luck!'_ I thought and smiled at Will.

"Hey Will, how's it going?" I said, and slammed a high-five with him.

"Pretty good. It's been really quiet. There aren't many year-rounders this year. Only fifty or so."

I know it might sound like a big number for a camp, but since Percy made the gods swear that they'd claim every child of theirs, the numbers at Camp Half-Blood had increased enormously. The number of campers we had at summer was almost 200.

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "Where have they all gone?"

Will shrugged.

"They've found places to stay, I guess. Some relatives, or friends. Some of them were going into boarding schools, like Annabeth."

Uh-oh. This discussion was taking a dangerous course.

"Speaking of which, where is she?" Will asked, looking around to see if 'Annabeth' had already gone somewhere.

_'Oh NO! What should I say?'_ I thought. This wasn't good. Think, Annabeth, think!

I felt Percy's hands on my shoulders again and almost against my will I started to relax under his touch.

"She's working on her blueprints. I came here to see Chiron. Where is he?"

It wasn't actually a lie, since most of the time I actually was working on my blueprints. _And_ we really were looking for Chiron.

"Oh, that's too bad. It would've been cool to see her. It feels so different when she isn't here all year round," Will said, obviously disappointed. "But I guess she has something important there in New York, huh?" he then continued with a humorous smile.

I tried to laugh along.

"Yeah, I think she has. But could you tell me where Chiron is? I'd like to see him."

_'Smooth change of topic, Annabeth. Way to go,'_ I thought to myself. I should've thought about things to say when someone mentions me.

"I think he's chilling on the porch with Mr. D," said Will.

I thanked him and started to walk towards the Big House again.

"Nicely done," Percy whispered. "You just have to relax."

"I'm trying, okay? This is my first time being a guy," I said from the corner of my mouth.

**

* * *

Percy's POV**

Just like Will had said, Chiron and Mr. D were sitting on the front porch of the Big House, accompanied by who else than our favourite goat boy. They were having a conversation, which, as we walked closer, didn't sound good.

"I'm sorry I ruined your rhododendron, sir," Grover said, gnawing at an empty Diet Coke can.

"You're sorry! You should be more than sorry after what you did! It was a perfectly fine piece of decoration, mister Underwood!" Mr. D roared.

"I'm _very_ sorry about that, lord Dionysos. My woodland magic... It's getting worse by the day-"

"Is it because of her, Grover?" Chiron asked kindly.

"I'm not sure, sir-"

Then Mr. D raised his glare from Grover, and he saw us.

"Oh no! As if this day wasn't bad enough! Perry Jackowitz!"

Grover lifted his gaze from the floor.

"Perrr-cy!" he bleated when he saw us coming and jumped up from his chair.

Annabeth smiled.

I felt weird. Usually when Annabeth smiled, I got all tingly in the bottom of my stomach, and just wanted to kiss the living daylights out of that girl. But now, I was too weirded out by my own face, that I didn't feel a thing, never to mention wanting to kiss my girlfriend. It was a bit sad, but she was a guy now for Hades' sake!

Grover leaped to us and gave Annabeth a manly hug. She pulled it off pretty well, I had to admit. I was proud of my girl.

"Awesome to see you, Percy. What are you doing here?" Grover asked.

"Good to see you too, Grover. I'm actually here to see Chiron. I have to talk to him. And you, too," Annabeth said and glanced at me. I nodded and smiled, giving her a permission to reveal our secret to him.

"Oh, what about?" Grover asked, fondling with the hem of his camp T-shirt. He still had his old rasta-cap on him. I was amazed it was still there. He'd gone to so many places with it that I'd been sure he would lose it someday.

"It's a bit... unusual, so I'd rather discuss it privately," Annabeth said.

"Okay. Your timing was perfect by the way. I'm sure Mr. D was about to turn me into a dolphin any second," Grover said. We started to walk to the porch.

"Why was he so mad at you? We could hear him miles away," Annabeth said.

I face-palmed.

"Oh, he... Wait, you said, '_we_ could'. There's only you there," Grover said.

Annabeth jumped and ruffled her hair.

"Well, that is kinda what I'm here for. Just wait and see," she said.

"You have something going on, Percy. Is it related to the fact that Annabeth isn't here?" Grover asked.

"Sort of, yeah," said Annabeth.

We stepped onto the sunny porch.

Chiron was sitting in his wheel chair and smiling heartily as we arrived. Mr. D was glowering at us.

"Percy, my boy, how nice to see you! Where did you leave Annabeth?" Chiron asked.

"Nice to see you, too, Chiron. I actually came to talk about something concerning... Well, her not being here," Annabeth said.

Dionysos rose from his chair, mumbling about grapes, and plodded along towards the canoe lake.

"Now that we're alone, what's wrong?" Chiron asked.

"Could we go inside, please. This is quite disturbing," Annabeth said.

Chiron stepped out of his chair, revealing his whole lower body, which was one of a white stallion. He led us inside the Big House, and motioned us to sit down. I remained standing, just for peace's sake. If I'd sat on the leather couch, it would've created even more confusion in Chiron and Grover.

"So now, Percy, what's going on?" Grover asked, still fondling with his shirt.

Annabeth took a deep breath. I placed my hand on her shoulder to calm her down. I was kinda proud of the idea of using muscle memory. I'd been sure that my body still remembered how to react to Annabeth's touch. And I'd been right about it.

"This is going to sound very weird, but try not to freak out, okay?" Annabeth started.

Chiron and Grover both nodded.

"I'm pretty good with weird, Percy. You should already know that," Chiron said, still smiling.

"Umm, yeah. Well, actually, I'm not Percy," said Annabeth.

Grover laughed.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm Annabeth. In Percy's body," Annabeth continued.

Grover stopped laughing, and Chiron stopped smiling.

"Huh?" said Grover. "You can't be Annabeth."

"Percy, take off the cap," Annabeth ordered.

I felt sorry for her. Both Chiron and Grover would see her in her pyjamas. But still, I took off the cap.

Our audience gasped.

"Holy Gaea," Grover mouthed.

"Hi, Chiron. 'Sup, Grover?" I said. The situation was so weird that I just couldn't help smiling.

"What is it that actually happened?" Chiron asked.

"Well, that's sort of what we've come to ask. But first of all, Percy here would need to change and tidy up a bit," said Annabeth.

"Hmm, I see. You can use the rec room," Chiron said.

"Thank you. We'll be back shortly," Annabeth said, took my hand, and dragged me to the rec room, where council meetings were held.

I put her bag on the ping pong table.

"Okay, let's get this over with. I hope you took some convenient clothes with you, because you will be using those for a while," Annabeth said.

"So, what do I do?" I asked. I still wasn't sure how this was going to work, even though Annabeth had explained this once already.

"Just close your eyes, and do as I say. And no peeking or I will strangle you, okay?" she said.

"Naturally," I replied and closed my eyes.

"Okay, put your hands up," Annabeth ordered.

I did what I was told and soon felt my shirt being taken off.

"This is so weird," I muttered.

"It isn't normal for me either, Seaweed Brain. We just have to deal with..."

"What?" I asked. Why did she suddenly trail off?

"Percy, I really don't know how a man's body works, but your muscles seem to remember something else, too," Annabeth said, her voice strained a bit.

_'Uh-oh.'_

I really wanted to open my eyes to see what was wrong, but I was still afraid of violating Annabeth, so I just kept my eyes shut tight.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing much..." Annabeth mumbled and suddenly I felt something around my stomach, that I assumed to be the bra.

If Nancy Bobofit would see me now, she'd have a real reason to make fun of me for the rest of my life.

"Good _gods_, Percy, I don't know what you've been doing, but this is very annoying," Annabeth said, her voice a bit more strained.

"Could you please tell me what the matter is? I could help you," I said, fighting the urge to open my eyes.

"I'm not sure how to put this."

"This situation is starting to be so weird that I think you can just say what it is. It's not going to get any weirder," I noted.

"I... Well not me, it's you... You sort of have a hard-on," she said.

_'Ugh, this is not good.'_

"I'm so sorry, Annabeth," I said. What else was there to say? Oh, gods, I was such a creep!

"It's... okay I guess. It's just very weird," Annabeth said. She took this so calmly. I admired her for that.

"I know, Annabeth. I should keep myself better in check," I said. "But could we get this thing done here?"

"You're silly, you know that, Seaweed Brain?" she asked and continued working with the bra. "You know, I wonder why it is that our muscle memory is so good. Usually it isn't to this... extent."

"We'll have to ask Chiron about that," I said.

There was a certain downside to having a good muscle memory. When Annabeth started to shimmy the bra to its place her hands brushed against the sensitive skin of my chest. It felt very good in a weird way. I felt a strong tug in my lower stomach and shivered.

"Sorry about that, Percy," Annabeth said. "That was for your body going hard-on on me."

I laughed. She was just the one I needed. She could take an awkward situation and make it better and easier to handle.

"Sure, Wise Girl," I said and she smacked me in my stomach.

"Okay, now just pull the straps on your shoulders, got it?" she asked.

I tried. And I actually got it. You might think I'm crazy, but I was pretty proud of myself again. I could handle this.

"Look at you, Seaweed Brain. You'd make an amazing girl," Annabeth teased me.

"Hey! I'm as masculine as I can be in your body. It's _hard_," I faked a whining tone.

She laughed and gave me a shirt, which I put on.

"Okay, let's continue with this shall we?" she said and took hold of the legs of my super-short shorts.

_'Finally I'll get rid of these!' _I thought, but Annabeth stopped and let go of my shorts.

"Percy, I really think you should do it yourself," she said.

"Umm, why?"

"I don't think I can handle any more of Little-Percy pulling jokes on me. I'm already very uncomfortable, to be frank. I'm sorry, I just feel stupid."

Ok, great. Now I'd done it. I'd made her feel uncomfortable even though I wasn't inside my own body right now! We'd just talked about this yesterday! I couldn't keep myself at bay.

There was a long, awkward silence.

"Annabeth?" I asked to check if she was still there. I wasn't sure, you see.

"Yes?" she answered.

"Can I open my eyes for a minute, please?"

"Umm, yes, you can," she said with an unsure voice.

I opened my eyes and saw Annabeth sitting on the corner of the ping pong table, playing with her invisibility cap in her hands.

I took a few careful steps toward her.

"May I sit next to you?" I asked. I wanted to make sure, unless she was so weirded out that she couldn't stand even being near me.

Annabeth looked at me, blinked, and nodded. Then she went back into fondling her cap. I sat next to her on the table, careful to keep a little distance.

"You know that I would never intentionally hurt you?" I asked.

Annabeth took a deep breath.

"I know," she said and hung her head. "It just feels so weird. I haven't really had a solid parental relationship, so no one hasn't really told me anything about this stuff. I've learned everything from my sisters here at camp. And when it came to boys, Malcolm was the one to answer my questions. The rest about, you know, _sex_ and stuff I have learned from movies and all. Now that I'm here, in this situation, where I love someone so much that I can't even think about committing to anyone else... I feel like I don't know anything. And then in comes this body part of which I have no clue what to think about..."

Listening to her finally telling me everything that bothered her, I really wished I could've just leaned closer and kissed her worries away. But I couldn't. I couldn't kiss a guy.

Instead, I took the cap out of Annabeth's hands softly, and said,

"I'm glad you told me all this, Annabeth. Now that I know, I can make things easier for you. But you know what?"

She turned to look at me, tears glistening in those sea green eyes.

"Yeah?"

"Yesterday when we, err, talked about things, and you said that you sometimes just can't help yourself?"

Annabeth blinked.

"Yeah, I remember. What about it?" she asked, cocking her head slightly to the side.

"In it's basic, it's the same as, what did you call it, 'Little-Percy' having a mind of his own. I can understand now that it makes you feel weird. The media makes things seem dirty. But it's just the same as it is with you. It just shows with us guys."

I smiled, and so did Annabeth.

"I love you," she said, taking my hand in hers.

"Love you, too. Very, very much," I said and squeezed her hand.

Annabeth looked at our entwined wingers.

"You know, looking at our hands like this, I can almost imagine that your hand is really yours, and mine is mine. I remember how it feels," she said.

I dropped my gaze at our hands, too. I saw what she meant. Annabeth closed her eyes, and I copied her. I concentrated only on her hand in mine. Without seeing my face where hers should've been, I could feel the same kind of love and affection I used to feel whenever I was around Annabeth.

With my eyes closed, I leaned closer to her, and placed my lips ever so softly against hers, lingered on her mouth for a moment, and pulled slowly back. Then I opened my eyes again.

Annabeth smiled, her tears now trickling down her cheeks. I swept them away with my index finger. She shuffled closer to me, wrapping her arms around me and planting a kiss on my head.

"Okay, Seaweed Brain. We still need to get you into some real trousers," she said then and hopped off the ping pong table.

She took the pair of jeans I'd picked for her, and her underpants, and huffed in approval.

"Hmm, I see you have a decent taste in women's clothing. These underpants don't go well with that bra, but still..."

"Hey, I didn't pay much attention to the colour! I just grabbed something," I said.

Annabeth looked at me, a little twinkle in her eyes.

"I knew that, stupid. Let's put these on, shall we?" she asked, waving the underpants in the air.

I stood up.

"Okay, do you want me to do it by myself?" I asked. I wanted her to be as comfortable as possible.

"Sure, you can. Just close your eyes, take the shorts off, and put the undies on. Then take the jeans and... Oh well, you know what to do," she said and turned her back at me. "Just tell me when you're ready."

"Alright. I really hope I put these on the right way," I said.

"I'm sure you'll do fine. Just hurry up. Grover and Chiron are still waiting for us."

Oh, yeah, I'd totally forgotten about them. I squeezed my eyes shut, kicked the shorts off, felt a breeze in my nether regions, quickly slipped the undies on, and finally pulled the jeans on. Success!

"Okay, I'm done!" I said happily and opened my eyes.

Annabeth turned around.

"Wow, I'm impressed," she grinned. "Now the finishing touch."

She took a leather strap from her bag. It must've been there before, because I hadn't taken it with me. Annabeth strapped her bronze knife on my arm.

"Now we're ready. Just be girly, but not too girly. And try, _try _to be smart!" she said.

"Sure. Be smart. Can do," I said and smiled. "Let's do this!"

We took our stuff with us and went back to Chiron and Grover.

"That took you quite long," Grover noted. "We were starting to get worried."

"It isn't easy to be a girl, you know," I said and grinned.

"Are you really Percy? You pull the role off pretty well," Grover snickered. I tried to smack him with Annabeth's bag.

"Now, now, boys," said Chiron, though his lips were twitching. "So, Annabeth and Percy. Why don't you tell us exactly what happened?"

* * *

**So, that was it! More is to come. Just as a reminder: I really, really, _really_ like reviews :) *Wink wink* They are my oxygen. Again, Happy Valentine's day! I really hope yours is special and full of love and chocolate and teddy bears! Or roses.**

**Athena's Cabin wishes you all a lovey dovey evening! I'm going to sleep now.**

**Peace, (lots of) love, PJO!**

**Luv,**

**AC**


	4. An Audience with the Oracle

**How's it going, peeps? I'm not going to babble for long. Just wanted to say hi. No off you go, read the 4th chapter! **

* * *

**Percy's POV**

We sat down comfortably and told Chiron and Grover everything; how we woke up as each other, how I was chased by Mormos (that's what Annabeth called them), and how we finally ended at camp.

"So, do you have any idea of why this happened?" I asked Chiron.

He shook his head. "I really do not know, I'm afraid. I have to admit, that even in my standards, this is very weird. I haven't seen anything like this before."

Believe me when I say that I didn't feel really hopeful. If Chiron didn't know the answer, no one did.

"I think that you two should stay at camp until we have sorted this out. Would you like to call your mother, Percy? I assume she will be unnerved if you don't show up," Chiron asked, pulling a cell phone out of his quiver that was hanging on the wall.

"Well, we haven't actually told her about this whole... situation," Annabeth said. I nodded, since I had nothing to add, but I felt like I should contribute to the discussion, since the question was mainly addressed to me.

"I see. Well, do as you please. The camp is for you to stay, as long as you'll need," Chiron said, and turned to walk back outside, but I remembered something I'd wanted to ask about.

"Just a moment, Chiron. There is something that we realized due to this incident that I wanted to ask you about," I said, and Chiron turned back to us.

"Yes? Go ahead my boy. Ah, well," Chiron blinked, "You know what I mean."

I could feel my face go hot. I'd forgotten how easily Annabeth blushed. And how utterly cute she looked when she did so.

"Yeah, well. We noticed that our have some kind of ability to control us a bit. Some kind of muscle memory sort of thing? Like, for example, my body still knows how to walk like I do and... stuff," I explained. I didn't want to go into much detail though.

"Oh, yes. Chiron, do you know why _that_ happens?" Annabeth added.

Chiron rubbed his bearded chin for a moment with a thoughtful expression on his face, and then said, "Nothing comes into my mind really. It might be that since demigods rely on their body very much in general, I mean, you all are very athletic and you use your muscles daily as you learn new fighting routines. That could possibly cause this to happen. Again, I have to say that I have never encountered anything like this, even though I have dwelled upon this earth for quite some time."

Grover had been quiet for a big deal of time, but suddenly he cried, "Chiron, you should be teaching archery in a minute!"

Chiron took a glance at his watch.

"Oh, good gods! Thank you, Grover. I must fly," he said, and rushed out of the Big House.

There was a moment of silence which Annabeth broke first.

"Grover, you didn't tell us why Mr. D was so angry with you when we came. Mind to share the story with us?" she asked, making Grover jump and start to nibble on a notebook that had been lying on the table beside him.

"Umm, well. I sort of killed one of his plants," he said timidly. "It was a pure accident. I tried to make it bloom beautifully, but it ended up dead. My magic hasn't been very good lately." He hung his head.

"Why is that?" asked Annabeth with compassion in her eyes. I had a feeling that she might've known something, but I myself didn't have a clue. Grover's magic had never been of the most tremendous kind, but he'd known how to grow plants without killing them.

Grover didn't answer Annabeth's question.

"Chiron asked something like 'Is it because of her?' What did that mean?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

Grover let out a heart-breaking bleat and shoved the rest of the notebook down his throat.

"I'd really not talk about it, if you don't mind," he said and sniffled.

"Talking usually makes things better, you know," I commented, but Grover didn't seem to think that was the best thing to say.

"Better? How could this get any better? Do you remember what it was like when your parents tore you guys apart? Did it feel like it would get better, Percy? Did it?" he shouted at me, but suddenly calmed down after that, and lay his eyes on the floor.

"I'm sorry, Percy. I'm fine. No need to worry," he said. It sounded rehearsed. Like he had said the same thing to many people before.

"Grover, I think I know what's going on, and I'm very sorry for what you're going through," Annabeth said in a soft voice. Gods, couldn't she use my voice any less masculinely? Or was that just how I sounded when I talked to Annabeth when she was sad? When I tried to calm her down and tell her everything would be okay?

Grover burst into tears, as usual. He did that a lot when he got upset. Annabeth rushed to hug him, and I went to them, patting Grover's shoulder.

"Just let it all out, man," I said.

"Percy's right, Grover. Crying is good," said Annabeth.

Grover took our advice and cried for a lot of time. It started to dawn on me what actually was wrong with him. I suspected it to be Thalia, a good friend of ours, who had had a little romance going on with Grover last summer, but who had had to leave him since she belonged to the Hunters of Artemis, and they could not fall in love, or they'd lose their immortality. It had been a tough spot for both of them. Thalia had gone back to the Hunters, and Grover had been left alone there at camp.

Eventually Grover stopped crying. He looked at us with puffy eyes and blinked.

"Thank you guys. You're such good friends," he said.

"No worries, man. That's what best buds are for," I said and smiled at him.

"Yeah, we'll always be there for you. I'm glad I can repay you the protection you've given to me through all these years," said Annabeth, smiling, too.

Grover stood up from the sofa, and rubbed his eyes.

"Well, it's soon time for lunch. You guys want to join?" he asked.

"Sure thing!" I said. Of course we would stay. We couldn't go home looking like this could we?

"You'll have to sit with my siblings, Percy," Annabeth reminded me.

This would be interesting. I wasn't sure if I would be able to remember all her siblings' names.

"Oh, yeah. Sure," I said, since I didn't want to let Annabeth know how I would blow everything up. "You're going to have it the easy way. You get to sit all by yourself," I told her.

"Oh, this will be an interesting show to watch," Grover snickered, clearly feeling somewhat like himself again.

"Definitely," Annabeth agreed.

We started to make our way towards the Mess Hall. On our way we encountered many campers, including Annabeth's sister Jenny, and little Lucy Adams, the newest addition to the cabin six crew. Grover had brought her to camp last summer; with a little help from me, Annabeth, Thalia, and Rachel Elizabeth Dare, our oracle. Lucy hadn't changed a bit.

"Hey! That's Annabeth!" she shouted from far away when she saw us. "She's my sister too, right, Jenny?" she asked.

"Yes, she is," Jenny answered, and as we got to them, she hugged me tightly.

"It's so wonderful to see you, Annabeth! What are you doing here? I thought you were going to school," she babbled.

"Great to see you too, Jenny. Umm, we just came to say hi," I said. I wasn't actually sure what to say. We hadn't talked about this part at all. The 'answering hard questions' part, I mean.

"Yeah," Annabeth rushed to help me out. "It's the weekend after all. We just dropped by."

Jenny turned to smile at Grover but when she saw him her expression changed dramatically.

"Jeez, Grover, what happened to you?" she asked. The question was entitled, of course. Grover's eyes were as puffy as... Well... They were puffy, okay?

"Oh, nothing. I cry easily, you know. I killed Mr. D's plant," he said.

Jenny giggled. "Poor thing. I'm glad I wasn't there when he found out about it."

Grover nodded. "You _are_ lucky."

He took Lucy to sit on his shoulders and we carried on towards the Mess Hall. Lucy played with Grover's rasta cap, and me, Annabeth, and Jenny were engaged in a conversation. A very awkward one to be frank. I had to pay attention to what I said, just to make sure nothing would slip. On our way, more people joined in, and we had to lie about why we were at camp over and over again. By the end, I started to get really good at lying. I felt pretty confident. We could pull this off until we'd sort this thing out. Or, at least, so it would seem.

**

* * *

Annabeth's POV**

When we arrived to the Mess Hall, Percy joined my siblings in Athena's table. Grover walked me to Poseidon's table and went to sit with Dionysos' table himself. I tried to look around to find Nico, another friend of ours, but I didn't see him anywhere. Mr. D was also nowhere to be seen. I supposed he was somewhere recovering from the loss of his rhododendron. After everyone was settled down at their tables, Chiron announced that Percy and I were there. The whole camp cheered. Then the nymphs came and brought food. I looked at the other tables where people chattered happily and passed around the food platters. I felt alone. Did Percy feel this alone when he sat in Poseidon's table by himself? Soon everyone had some food on their plates and we lined up to the bronze brazier to give the gods a share of our meal.

I wasn't exactly sure about what to do then. Whom should I pray to? My mother or Poseidon? When it was my turn, I scraped the ripest grapes into the flames, and shouted, "Poseidon!" In my mind I thought:

_'Hey, Poseidon. We could use some help here. If not for mine, then for Percy's sake. Please.'_

After the meal I motioned Percy to get away from there. I really wanted to relax without the need to lie to everyone that came on our way. He got my hint and we left the Mess Hall together. We made our way to the beach and sat down onto the same rocks we usually sat on.

"Well, this has been one tough day," Percy said and took a deep breath.

I looked at the waves of the Long Island Sound. "Yeah, it sure has."

"You think it will take long until we're gonna figure this out?" he asked and looked at me. I looked back at him.

"I really don't know, Percy. I hope so. Frankly, this is really stressful," I said, and turned my face back towards the ocean.

"I know what you mean," said Percy. "But things could be far worse."

Really? They could? I wondered how. And asked Percy about that.

"Well," he said. "At least now we are in this together. Remember last summer when our parents gave us a hard time?"

I knew what he was talking about. Last summer our parents had forbade us from being together. It had broken us both. But right now, it was really hard to see the good things in this situation, since I didn't feel the attraction toward Percy. And worse yet, I really felt that he wasn't attracted to me either. I totally understood it. I mean, I was a guy now. And he was a girl at the moment. I loved my boyfriend, my hero, my Seaweed Brain, don't get me wrong. He's my whole world. But something was off. It would've felt weird if I was actually attracted to my own face, you have to admit that.

"Yeah, I remember," I muttered. My mood had plunged down to the deepest pit of Tartarus.

Of course Percy didn't see it. He was so obtuse sometimes. It had taken him so long until he'd realized how much I really liked him. He hadn't understood it even when I'd kissed him in Mount St. Helens. That's just the way he was.

"Yeah. Now we are allowed to be in this together. We don't have to suffer alone," Percy said and took my hand.

"Oh, look what we have here!" came a voice from behind us. A very familiar one.

We turned around to see a grinning redhead, who was leaning against a rock.

"My goodness! It's Rachel," I said, trying to look pleased, since that was how Percy usually looked when he saw Rachel.

"Yup, it's me. Surprised to see me, Percy? Hi Annabeth," she said, addressing the last to Percy, whose jaw had dropped to the ground.

"Well, I guess it's silly to be surprised since you actually live here, but yeah, I am a bit," I said, keeping up my appearance. I nudged Percy subtly to prevent him from ruining this.

"You know, I actually had a feeling that I would find you two here, _and_ that there was something I could do to you," Rachel said and raised her other eyebrow.

Oh my gods, did she know?

"Oh, do you have any idea of what that thing would be?" Percy asked, his voice a tad bit too friendly to my taste when Rachel Elizabeth Dare was concerned. The gods knew that she'd had a thing for Percy for quite some time, even though she had denied it last summer.

Just after Percy'd asked his last question, Rachel went stiff, like she was about to have a fit or something. Then her eyes turned a shocking shade of green.

"Uh-oh," I said. There was nothing else to say.

We moved to stand closer to her. She'd be grateful of it later.

Green smoke rose from Rachel's feet, forming snakelike figures that swirled around her. She opened her mouth and started to speak in a rasping voice that was not hers:

"A journey has begun for two.  
One other is yet to join their crew.  
The job must be done to stop the fight  
Between the dog and mischief, who both have spite.  
Deliver the ones that scared the birds  
But be aware of ruin's empty words.  
One single decision it all shall take  
To determine as whom you shall awake."

Rachel's legs gave under her and she collapsed. At the same time, the green smoke dissolved. We'd seen this happen before so we were ready to catch Rachel so that she wouldn't hurt herself. We put her down gently. Then we looked at each other.

"Shoot," I said.

"I was just about to say the same," said Percy.

So, this all had been caused by gods. Of course, I should've seen this before. Everything that happened was always due to the gods. How wonderful. Apparently it was time for us to play the part of delivery men.

Rachel's eyelids fluttered and she came back into consciousness.

"What did I say?" she asked. Her voice had gone back to normal, and her eyes weren't that shocking green anymore.

Percy smiled timidly.

"You gave us some work to do," he said and offered Rachel his hand. Rachel took it and Percy pulled her up.

"Thanks, Annabeth," she said, seemingly surprised that "I" was capable of being so nice to her.

"And sorry about that. I often get the feeling that I only bring difficulties into people's lives," she said, clearly sincere with her apology. I guess being the Oracle of Delphi isn't a piece of cake.

"Well, I don't mean that we aren't always glad to see you," I said.

"But you certainly bring a little... spark into our lives occasionally," Percy finished.

I have to say that I didn't like the way Percy said 'spark'. I could get along with Rachel whenever she wasn't trying (intentionally or not) to take Percy away from me. But when she did try, I couldn't stand her. I was jealous as Hades. She was pretty in her own way, and funny. Definitely someone a guy would have a crush on. I did not want her to steal my Seaweed Brain from me.

"Haha, spark. That's me," Rachel laughed. "So, what's going on with you two? Considering what happened last summer I bet things are good."

Percy and I glanced at each other and rushed words started to come out of our mouths:

"Yeah, definitely good."

"Absolutely marvellous."

"Never been better."

"Love is all around."

Rachel raised her eyebrow again and crossed her arms. "I see. Well, if there's anything I can do for you, let me know."

Percy took me by the hand. "Πρέπει να πούμε την τον" (We must tell her)

"Σίγουρα όχι," (Definitely not) I said. "Δεν θέλω να Ραχήλ ξέρει" (I don't want Rachel to know)

"You know, I can understand some Greek myself. Like I said, I had a feeling that I could help you guys with something. What do you need help in?" Rachel said.

_'Ο Ζευ και άλλοι θεοί,' _I thought. This didn't go exactly how I'd wanted.

"I can wait for the whole night if needed. I'm far too curious to let this go," she noted, grinning like mad. With her orange hair she reminded me of a Jack-O-Lantern.

"Rachel, if we tell you, can you swear upon the River Styx that you won't repeat what we say to anyone, anywhere, in any circumstances?" Percy asked. I was so happy to hear him ask that. I was glad how he, too, felt the need to handle our secret carefully and to not trust any person who asked us about this.

Rachel placed her right hand on her chest.

"I swear with... Umm... An oracle's honour, and upon the River Styx that this thing will stay strictly between us three, and that I will never tell anyone else about what you are about to say. This is better be pretty damn important."

I took a deep breath. I'd taken those a lot during the day.

"Okay. We'll tell you then," I said and sat down on the sand. Rachel and Percy followed my lead.

I started to tell Rachel our story. I felt really self-conscious. "You see, this morning we weren't exactly like ourselves. Basically-"

"Oh, so _that's_ what my dream meant!" Rachel squealed and clapped her hands. Then she pointed her finger at me.

"You are Annabeth, right? And that," she nodded towards Percy, "is Percy."

Holy mother of Chaos! She _knew_!

"Rachel," Percy said with a cautious tone. "Tell us everything you know. It's essential."

Rachel crossed her legs in a way that reminded me of a chief of a native American tribe in a pow-wow. "Well, it was a couple of days ago, when I had this dream... About you guys. Plus some other people."

"At first I saw a fancy Greek style building on a rocky hill. The image zoomed in and I could see this little girl, about six years old, with flaming red hair, even more fiery than mine."

She chuckled a bit and carried on:

"Anyway, that girl was yelling at these gnome-like things. She had such a high-pitched scream that I couldn't figure out much from what she said. Something about her sister, and I think she mentioned some kind of a musical instrument... I really can't remember what it was. A tambourine? Not sure. But that sounded irrelevant. Then the dream changed, the same girl was sitting on a throne, resting her chin on her hand. She looked really tired and sad. Then all of a sudden she bounced up, and started to laugh a really annoying laugh. You know like the kind of laughter they have in little kids' movies when an evil witch has come up with a master plan on how to become the 'fairest of them all'?"

We nodded. Inside my head I was trying to put puzzle pieces together. Well, the little pieces we had. We didn't have much. Yet.

"The dream changed again, and now I saw Percy in his bed, sleeping. Then he woke up, slowly sat up, and looked at his own chest, touching it like there was something very weird in it. He jumped up, and ran to a mirror. Then I saw Annabeth in her dorm room, I suppose. She was looking at her chest, too. She stood up and started to ogle at her legs. I heard the high-pitched, craftily delighted laughter again, and then I woke up. And that was pretty much it."

Rachel looked at us curiously. I turned to Percy.

"What do you think, Percy?" I asked him.

"About what?"

"About the relationship between the raising prices of chromed wrenches and the mating seasons of hadal fish. What do you reckon I'm talking about, Seaweed Brain?" I nudged him in the ribs. Too bad I didn't hit the target I was intending to.

"Ouch! Ow, ow, ow! You nailed my boob!" Percy wailed, bending over, and shooting accusing glances at me.

"Sorry, Percy! Oh my gods, I completely forgot that. I'm so sorry!" I cried out, patting Percy's back.

Rachel was laughing her butt off beside us. When I looked at her, she was literally rolling on the ground. Stupid oracle. Try being in this position yourself. We'll see who'll be laughing then.

When Percy had recovered from my boob attack, we started to discuss the prophecy.

"Okay, so 'the journey has begun for two' means definitely us," I said, drawing patterns on the sand with my finger.

"Well, who is the one other?" Percy asked.

"He or she will probably make him- or herself known along the way," I said. I was certain of it, really. The prophecies just tended to have a mind of their own.

"Yeah, you might be right. Who are the dog and mischief?" he wondered.

"Isn't Ares usually associated with a dog?" Rachel asked.

"Well, he'd go well together with mischief. I wonder why he'd have a fight with anyone mischievous," Percy mumbled. He didn't have a good relationship with the God of War.

"But who is mischief?" Rachel asked.

"I only can come up with Hermes. He's the God of Thieves. Oh, and one other, but she's a very minor goddess. She isn't mentioned much," I said.

"Who is she?" Percy asked.

"Atë, goddess of destruction, folly, and, surprisingly enough, mischief."

"Oh, she sounds charming," Rachel laughed.

"Absolutely wonderful," Percy went along.

"What's the next line?" I asked.

"'Deliver the ones that scared the birds,'" said Percy.

"What on earth?" Rachel asked.

"Hey, Annabeth. Do you remember any stories about scarecrows?" asked Percy.

"No, not really..." I said, trying to think of something, but right then, nothing came into my mind. I'd need to pray to my mother.

"Okay, the next line, please," Rachel said.

"'But be aware of ruin's empty words,'" I said. "That could be Atë, since 'ruin' is a synonym for 'destruction'."

"Or, it could be Hades," Percy reminded. Yeah, that guy really knew how to ruin your day. Plus, he was full of empty words.

"Then there's, 'one decision it all shall take,'" Percy said. "Why is it always 'one decision?' And everything always depends on it."

I knew he was referring to the Great Prophecy that had concerned him.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," I muttered. "But at least the last line is obvious."

"And it sounds good, too. At least we will awake. Usually prophecies don't give that much hope," Percy noted. True, again.

"Well, it seems like we'll have to talk to Chiron again, and find out who will join you for this quest," Rachel said and rose on her feet. We followed her and ran away from the beach.

* * *

**Oooh, they're going on a quest! Any ideas who the dog and mischief are? Or the things that scared the birds? Tell me what you think.  
Athena's cabin wishes you a sweet and fluffy sunday.**

**Peace, love, PJO!**

**Luv,**

**AC **


	5. What Makes a Girl

**Heyyy! This chapter has been inspired by a few songs, two of which more than others. The two are 'A girl worth fighting for' from Disney's Mulan, and 'Just the way you are' by Bruno Mars. I decided to have some fun with the other boys at camp, since they aren't mentioned that much otherwise. I hope you find it as entertaining as I found writing it!

* * *

**

**Percy's POV**

It was kinda funny how this time telling Chiron our news was much easier than last time. Usually telling him about a quest was intimidating, when you didn't know what you'd be up against, and if Chiron would let you go or not. Now, after the encounters in the morning, the subject of a quest was one of the easiest ones to bring up. Needless to say, Chiron (and Mr. D, but he didn't care much, because there was always the possibility that we would die on our quest and he'd get rid of us) let us go. First we had fo figure out who would be coming with us. There was one thing about prophecies and it was that things usually flowed on their own. Prophecies had a tendency of having a mind of their own, and they just tossed the heroes around like a ball, or something else that's been tossed around, I don't know.

I didn't mind spending a whole day at camp. Annabeth and I didn't join the activities that day, because everyone would've seen how uncomfortable we were fighting with each other's weapons, so Grover took a break from practicing, and joined us in a little spot behind the cabins, where no one could see us, and we tried to get used to each other's weapons. Annabeth didn't have much problems with Riptide, because she had had to learn how to use a sword. Swordplay with an actual sword was mandatory during your first year at camp. Outside those mandatory sword lessons, Annabeth had used her knife. I hadn't used a knife as a weapon much. Actually, since Riptide was quite long, a bit longer than swords usually, moving into a really short weapon wasn't easy. Annabeth told me that when your blade was shorter than your opponents, you had to get closer. To me it sounded like someone else had once taught the same to her, in the exactly same words. I had an idea of who it could've been, but I didn't ask. She didn't need any less stress right now. I was afraid that she would snap. I'm not saying that I'd think she's weak. No, she is actually stronger than me. Don't ever tell her I said that. But in any case, she wasn't the one to always talk about how she feels, and her feelings often piled up and then she'd suddenly explode. A good example of that was right before our quest in the labyrinth, when she'd pondered the whole situation too long on her own, and when I went into her cabin, she went all un-Annabethy, and cried all over my shirt while I hugged her.

Ok, back to me using a knife. Well, there is not much to say. I was bad, although Annabeth kept telling me after every time she knocked the knife out of my hand, that I was improving. Grover hadn't said much during the practice. He had just sat there on the ground and watched. I was worried about him. He had this cloudy look in his eyes, like he was sick or something. It wasn't like him. His eyes always sparkled with natural health, especially now that he held a high position in the Council of Cloven Elders. It was almost the time for dinner, when I realized that I should call mum. This thing would obviously take quite some time, and she would go berserk if I didn't show up. She knew about the demigod lifestyle being dangerous and all, but she still went nuts when I was doing something unexpected and possibly dangerous.

"I have to call mum," I told Grover and Annabeth, who was swinging my sword in patterns, as if she had an invisible opponent. She stopped that when I spoke.

"That's probably a good idea. She'll get worried," Grover said and jumped on his feet (or hooves, but well, you know what I mean).

"Yeah, let's go then," said Annabeth, and touched Riptide's tip with its cap, and the sword turned into a pen, which she put in her pocket.

I was astonished by how natural she could look, even when she was in my body.

"What are you looking at, Seaweed Brain?" she asked when she saw me watching her.

"Well, Wise Girl, you play the part very well," I said and bowed at her excellence like in Karate Kid.

Annabeth blushed. "Shut up, let's just go."

How I did love it when she blushed! She was absolutely adorable when her cheeks went a little pink, and she'd lay her eyes down, looking at her own feet. Now, it was just weird, seeing myself blush. I felt like I'd lost something. A feeling that once was there, but wasn't anymore.

We found Chiron standing by the lake, looking keenly at the water.

"Chiron, could we us the phone? I really need to call my mother," I said when we reached him.

"Of course. I was wondering when you would call Sally," Chiron said. "You know where to go."

He went back to staring into the water, and we made our way to the Big House and took Chiron's cell phone from his quiver that was still hanging on the wall.

"Ok, I don't know if I want mum to know about this thing, so could you please talk to her, Annabeth?" I asked.

"Sure. What should I say?"

"Just tell her that we have a dilemma going on at camp and we need to save the day again. She can live with that much," I said.

Annabeth took the phone from me, and picked Sally Jackson's number from the contacts list.

"Hey Paul, it's Percy. Umm, is mum there?" she said after a few seconds, and looked at me with scared eyes. She mouthed something that looked like 'Help me!'.

"Oh, well, could you tell her that Per-, Annabeth and I are going to have to stay at camp for a bit?"

She started to walk around the room anxiously.

"Yeah, we have a situation here. Yeah, haha, gotta save the day!"

Had I just said that she pulled my part off well? I wondered how thick Paul was to actually swallow what Annabeth was feeding him.

"Okay, well, tell her not to worry. We'll be fine." She looked at me and smiled. "Yeah, I'll take care of her. Sure. Bye!"

She closed the phone and sighed heavily.

"Oh my gods, that was scary!" she said and sank on the sofa, her hand theatrically on her forehead.

"What did he say?" Grover asked. He hadn't seen Paul, but I had told him stuff about him, so he had an idea about what Paul would think.

"Well, Sally was at work and she'd forgotten her phone. He said that he'd tell her that we have a mission and that we need to stay here," Annabeth said.

"What was it that he asked you to tell 'her'?" I asked. I had an idea, but I wanted proof.

Annabeth smiled. "He asked me to keep you safe," she said, walked to me, and rested her hand on my shoulder. That was such a girly gesture that I laughed out loud at it. Annabeth looked at me, confused.

"What?" she asked.

"Oh, you're just such a girl," I said.

I didn't know what I did wrong, since usually girls liked being told how feminine they were, but Annabeth gave a reaction that was unlike anything I would've imagined. What she did was take two steps away from me, get her face deep red, and start yelling at me.

"I can't believe you can be such a git, Percy! Do you think that makes me feel any better? How utterly _obtuse_ can a person be? I thought you had grown out of that! How could you do this to me? Είσαι τέτοιος ηλίθιος! (You're such an idiot) I really hate you!"

And then she stormed out of the room.

"What did I do?" I asked Grover, bewildered of Annabeth's sudden explosion.

"Apparently you pissed her off?" Grover wondered, clearly unsure about what to say.

It was my time to sink on the couch. "Ohh, this sucks! I have tried to avoid hurting her, but I this took me by surprise!" I buried my face in my hands.

"Oh, she'll come around, Percy," Grover said and sat next to me. "She's just shaken. You both are. I'm an empath, I know."

I sighed. "I guess you're right. I just can't understand what I did wrong."

"Think about it, Percy. Have you ever been good with the ladies?"

Again, Grover was right. I had never been able to figure them out.

"See? You are a Seaweed Brain. You don't understand girls, and that's a part of the guy Annabeth loves. Just be who you are, she'll calm down and realize that she doesn't hate you," he said, rose, and offered me his hand. I took it and hugged him.

"Aww, Percy, _you _are such a girl!" he laughed. I smacked him playfully.

"What did you say?"

"Dude looks like a lady!" Grover cried out and ran for it. I ran after him.

"Not funny, G-man!" I shouted as I chased him around the Big House and towards the Mess Hall, where dinner was just about to begin.

I joined Annabeth's siblings in their table. I tried to look for Annabeth, but she wasn't there yet. Jenny engaged me in a conversation with her and a couple of other sisters and I chatted with them until we all raised our glasses in honour to the gods. Then we lined up to the bronze brazier. When it came my turn to give my offering to the gods, I did just like I'd done at lunch.

"Athena!" I shouted as I dropped the warmest piece of bread into the flames.

_'Please, let us get back to normal. For Annabeth's sake. You know I love her,'_ I thought, and went back to my place around table six. When I was just a bite away from finishing my meal, Katie Gardner from Demeter cabin came to us.

"Hey, we're having a little girls' night in our cabin. Annabeth and Jenny, care to join us?" she asked.

Ooooh, no! I couldn't possibly go to a girls' night. I wasn't a girl for gods' sakes! Unfortunately, Jenny didn't know that.

"Of course we're coming!" she said and stood up to hug Katie. "Right, Annabeth?"

"Oh, yeah, absolutely!" I said. Well, I didn't have any choice, did I?

"Awesome! When you're done with your food, just come to my cabin," Kati said, and ran along.

Soon enough, Jenny and I were ready, and we made our way to Demeter's cabin.

"I'd really have to design... something," I tried, but Jenny waved her hand at me.

"Oh, tosh! Tonight, we're going to have some fun, just us girls! Admit it, you need some girl time. You have spent so much time with Percy and Grover that you have started to act boyishly."

"I have not!" I argued.

"You can't see it yourself, but I'm your sister, and I can. Trust me now, will you?"

See? I didn't have any choice. This could only end badly.

Jenny turned to look at me.

"You've definitely spent too much time with Percy. Nothing could ever have had enough authority over you to make you do something you didn't necessarily want to do. What's happened to you?" she said. Okay, I'm a terrible actor.

Note to self: Stay in character!

In Demeter's cabin, the party had already started. There were lots of people, most of whom I knew. There were Katie and her sister Erica from Demeter's cabin; Drew from Aphrodite; Clarisse (yes, she was in a girls' night. I was surprised to say the least) from Ares; Kelly, who I recalled was a daughter of Apollo; and Jenny and I. The others I didn't know. They were probably new.

"Hey! They're here!" Drew shrieked when Jenny and I walked in. Everyone turned to look at us, and shrieked in glee. Oh my gods, did girls have to shriek like that?

People were sitting on beds, chairs, and the floor. Demeter's cabin was very cozy. It had a slight farm house-y look in it with paintings of flowers and grain on the walls, and the ceiling that was padded with hay. Jenny and I found a spot on a bed, and we sat there.

"What have you girls planned?" Drew asked enthusiastically, bouncing on her chair.

"Well, we could play truth or dare," Katie suggested, and an enthusiastic shrieking followed. I swore to myself that when I would find the person who did this to me and Annabeth, I would make him or her pay.

"Okay, girls! Form a circle!" someone shouted and everyone crawled onto the floor. I followed Jenny involuntarily. This would be a long evening. I swear, being a girl is not a walk in the park!

* * *

**Annabeth's POV**

I was a bit late for dinner. I'd taken a little walk around the camp grounds, since I was really mad at Percy. He obviously hadn't seen how being a guy bothered me. I felt unattractive and I had the feeling that Percy didn't love me that much when I was a boy. Like all he cared for was my looks. When I finally joined all the other campers for dinner, most of them had already finished. Suddenly Travis and Connor Stoll from Hermes' cabin came to me.

"Hey, Percy!" said Travis with his usual impish smile.

"Hey guys, what's up?" I asked, trying to fit into my part.

"Well, since the girls are having a party of their own, were just wondering if you wanted to join us for a guys' night," Connor said.

"And if we could arrange it in your cabin, since you are there all by yourself," Travis added, grinning even wider.

Oh gods, what would I do in a guys' night? But they asked so nicely. And perhaps I could get some hints about Percy's true feelings for me from these people. Plus, I'd learn more about how to be a boy.

"Sure thing! Meet you up at my place after dinner?" I said, a bit thrilled inside.

"Awesome! You're the man, Perce!" they both exclaimed and slammed my back.

They ran along and I was left alone with my thoughts. Who else would be there? Would Grover be invited? Well as long the thing was held in Poseidon's cabin, I supposed that I could invite Grover regardless. I ate quickly and went to ask Grover to come for mental support. He agreed, though halfheartedly. It was sad, seeing him like that. Losing Thalia had obviously been a tough spot for him. I remembered how I'd felt after having to make the decision to break up with Percy because of our parents. It had almost killed me. And it almost had killed Percy, since he'd broken an oath he'd taken upon the river Styx. I mentally slapped myself. He'd been devastated. How could I ever had questioned his love? I was stupid. But still, I was mad at Percy for being a jerk and not realizing how I felt at the moment.

I walked to Poseidon's cabin with Grover. We found cabin three already packed with boys when we got there.

"The man's in the house!" yelled Chris, Clarisse's boyfriend. Everyone came to hug me (in a manly manner, of course. I was starting to get really good at it) or slam my back, or something else as boyish.

Travis and Connor had brought a deck of cards and sodas. From what I knew, the sodas were stolen from the camp store, but I didn't care. No one did. That was their way of showing appreciation; stealing stuff for you. We put up a poker game. 'We' consisted of me, Grover, Travis, Connor, Chris, Pollux from Dionysus' cabin, and Malcolm from Athena. If only I could tell Malcolm my secret! He'd help me like he'd done times and times before. But I couldn't.

"Percy? Are you gonna raise?" Connor asked and pulled me away from my daydream.

"Oh, yeah, sure. Sorry," I said and through in some drachmas.

"Ooh, I bet I know what Percy was dreaming about," Travis sneered and nudged me playfully.

That statement was followed by a roar of laughter.

"You know guys," Malcolm said and took two cards. "I've been thinking-"

"Surprise, Malcolm," Chris laughed.

"Shut it, Chris! Anyway, I'm a bit tired of the continuous training and battling. There's really nothing to fight for anymore," Malcolm continued.

"Don't be so negative, Malcolm," said Pollux.

"Yeah, soon you'll find a girl, who is worth fighting for!" Connor said, and he and Travis gave each other a high-five.

"Oh, seems like you have someone in mind already," Chris said, raising his eyebrows.

"Well, I've been eyeing that Drew from Aphrodite's cabin. She's a babe," Connor grinned.

"I know what you mean, man. Just one look from those eyes and a guy goes on his knees," Malcolm said. "But I don't understand how a girl could be something worth fighting for."

"Elementary, dear Malcolm," said Travis. "If something ever happened and you'd come away from battle as a hero, girls would just drool all over you. Just look at Percy!"

"What? What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, isn't it _obvious?_ Annabeth was all over you after you saved Olympus and were almost made a god. After that, we all made bets about how long it would take until the two of you would get together. It took quite some time," Chris noted.

I was furious. I wasn't a girl who would fall for a guy just because he'd killed something!

"Yeah, girls like a guy who can defend himself. And her," Connor said.

"They like a strong man with battle scars!" Chris added and pointed at his face, where he'd gotten a scar in the Second Titan War. "Clarisse can't get enough of mine. Plus, girls love a man in armour."

"But hey, a girl has to have some looks, eh, guys?" said Grover. I was surprised when he spoke. Surprised to say the least. I'd thought Grover looked for something else in a girl than just looks. Or was this just his ego talking?

"Oh, well, I don't mind their looks. I just want someone who can cook and take care of me," Pollux said. All the others laughed.

"Pollux, you're such a lazy-ass," Malcolm said.

"What do you think, Percy?" Travis asked. "Annabeth's a serious catch. No offense, Malcolm."

"None taken. She is pretty, I know," answered Malcolm.

I wasn't sure about what to say. I was outraged by the guys' materialistic views on women.

"Umm, I like a girl with a brain, you know? And her personality is just... awesome," I said, ruffling my hair.

"No offense, but I don't know what you see in her personality that is so awesome," Connor said. "I mean, she's nice and all, but she's not exactly _girly_ if you know what I mean. Not social, doesn't care about her looks much. She can be a bit mean."

That was a blow below the belt. If I had been confused earlier, I was hurt right now. Who did he think he was? I was afraid that my voice would crack from fury, but I had to say something.

"Well, I love her with or without her faults. I think she's wonderful."

The other guys were quiet.

"You know, Percy. I'm glad that you think of my sister like that," said Malcolm. "But don't you two ever fight of anything? Is there _anything_ in her that irks you?"

"Well obviously, but this is getting a bit personal," I said. "Umm, if you guys don't mind, I'm gonna go for a little walk. Grover, you can have my drachmas." I rose and walked out of the cabin. I'd had enough. People were starting to gather up to the amphitheater for the campfire. I decided not to go there. I wanted to have some time alone. That's why I headed towards the beach. After spending time with guys, I was in desperate need of peace and quiet. Too bad there was already someone on the beach.

"Percy," I said icily after recognizing the blonde girl standing on the water line.

The girl turned around. When I saw her face, I was sure I'd confused myself with someone else. The person I saw had her face done by someone as good as a makeup artist, and her hair had been braided from the front. She was beautiful. Still, it was my face. And it was Percy.

"Hi, Annabeth," he said, smiling a bit. "I survived a girls' night."

I didn't say anything. I just glared at him.

Percy's smile dissolved. "Look, Annabeth, I'm sorry what I said upset you. I didn't mean to make you feel bad," he said, his gaze holding mine pleadingly.

I still didn't say anything. He walked closer.

"Can you please forgive me? Or at least say something?" he asked.

When I still refused to speak, he fell on his knees in front of me.

"Please, Annabeth. Forgive me. I love you, and I promised to do so forever, remember? I didn't want to hurt you. Just please, _please_ forgive me," he said, and took my hand in his.

I had to bite my lip not to start smiling. He looked so funny, kneeling in front of me like that in my body.

"Okay, you're forgiven," I said. Percy stood up.

"Thank you, Annabeth," he said and hugged me. I was annoyed at the fact that he didn't even seem to want to kiss me. The gods know I wanted to kiss him. I just couldn't make myself do it. I wasn't gay. Or at least I didn't think so.

"Could you tell me just one thing?" Percy asked me, still holding me in his arms. It was weird how he still felt stronger than me, even though he was in a female body, and I was in a male one.

"What is it?" I asked, nuzzling my face into his hair. It felt relaxing in a weird way. I guess that was muscle memory again.

"Don't kill me for asking this, but what was it about me saying that you're girly that made you so mad at me?" he asked.

Okay, this would've come out of me sooner or later, so I decided just to let it go then.

"Well, this will probably sound a bit weird," I said and pulled back from our embrace. "But see, since I became a guy, I have felt really... How should I put it? Unattractive. Yeah. And it really felt that you didn't love me so much anymore without my looks. I guess you joking about me being girly just made me explode. I'm sorry, I probably shouldn't have snapped at you like that."

Percy stared at me.

"What are you looking at?" I asked, feeling self-conscious.

"How could you possibly think that I'd love you any less?" he asked quietly.

"I know, it's stupid-" I started, but Percy's finger on my lips silenced me.

"You know, before I knew you well, which was before we went on our first quest together, I thought you were just pretty. Now, I know that you are the most amazing person I've ever known, from the inside, and out," he said.

I hadn't noticed that I'd started to cry until Percy wiped a single tear away from my face.

"Silly Wise Girl. You really thought I loved you less because you don't have your amazing looks? I know, it feels weird, looking at you and seeing myself, but hey, I know you are still there. And it's you whom I fell in love with. And guess what?"

I blinked. "What?"

Okay, you all know how ridiculously corny Percy can be. But nothing he'd ever done exceeds the corniness that he performed then. What he did was that he backed away two steps, went down on one knee, and started to hum a song. When he got to the chorus, he really started to sing.

"When I see your face, there's not a thing that I would change, because you're amazing just the way you are..."

I blushed scarlet and giggled. This boy was obviously out of his mind. He crawled closer to me, still on one knee.

"And when you smile the whole world stops and stares for a while, 'cause girl, you're amazing just the way you are," he crooned and my giggles grew into full laughter.

I took Percy's hand and pulled him up. Then I hugged him like never before.

"You're so corny, Seaweed Brain. Where do you pick up that stuff? Old chick flicks?" I asked.

"Only the best of corniness for the love of my life," Percy said, and I cracked up again.

"I love you, Seaweed Brain. Just know that when I ask you, what the Hades have you talked about with Malcolm, Chris, Travis, Connor, and Grover?" I asked.

Percy looked confused.

"Why do you ask?" he asked.

"Because I just had a guys' night with them and they were asking about our personal matters. Oh, and do you think I fell in love with you because you were almost made a god?" I said, smiling.

"Oh my gods, what did the guys say?" Percy asked, horrified. "And of course I don't believe you fell in love with me then. You loved me since I saved you from the love tunnel on our first quest." Percy grinned and ruffled my hair.

"Excuse me, sir. I think it was _I_ who got us out of there in one piece," I said and slapped him playfully on his arm. "And it certainly wasn't your wit I fell in love with."

"You calling me stupid, Wise Girl? I'll show you stupid!" Percy exclaimed and pulled out my knife from his sleeve. I looked at it, and then at Percy.

"This will be an easy victory," I said and pulled Riptide out of my pocket.

We sparred for a moment and like I'd thought, in a matter of minutes, I had Percy disarmed, pleading for mercy.

"Told you. Easy victory," I grinned and gave Percy the knife back. "You are getting better though."

"Thank you, milady," Percy said and laughed.

"You know, I've been thinking about who should come with us to our quest," I said. It was true. I had been thinking. And I'd reached my decision.

"Me too," Percy said. "Grover, right?"

Seriously, sometimes I feel like this guy can read minds.

"Yeah, just like the good old days. Us three," I said.

Percy clapped his hands together. "That's settled then. Unless the Fates mingle with this, Grover will join us. If he wants to, of course."

"I sort of think he will come," I said. If not, I'd drag him anyway. That satyr needed to get out from camp. He'd been moping around for way too long.

"Should we join the others at the campfire?" Percy asked.

"Yup. Come here, you girl," I laughed and wrapped my arm around Percy's waist.

As we walked to the amphitheater, I really felt like we'd get through this. Life would smile at us again. Someday.

* * *

**Fifth chapter, guys! I hope you liked it! Next time, Percabeth is finally leaving for their quest!**

**Until then,**

**Peace, love, PJO!**

**Luv,**

**AC**


	6. With a Little Help From My Friends

**Well hello again! **

**First of all, I'd like to thank every single one of you who have reviewed my story during my absence! The flow of reviews made me finish this chapter, that had been neglected for months.**

**I gotta say, that there's no explanation for my long-lasted absence than school. I'm trying to get back on track now, but if you guys want to help me, you have to convince my teachers to cut down with the essays and literary analysis' and projects. If any of you manage to do that, I'm sure many of us IBPs will be eternally grateful. Well, since you've been waiting for this chapter for so long, I'm just gonna let you read it now. You're welcome! Enjoy!**

* * *

**Annabeth's POV**

Sleeping in cabin three was lonely. I felt bad for Percy, sitting at his own, lonely table, and sleeping in his own, lonely cabin. The night seemed to go very fast though, and before I even noticed, it was morning. I hadn't slept well, because I still hadn't been able to use the bathroom. A bit dizzy from the lack of sleep, I pulled on a camp T-shirt and a pair of black slacks I found in Percy's cupboard. Then I lulled out of the cabin and almost bumped into a blonde girl.

"Oh, morning, Percy!" I greeted my boyfriend.

"Hi," he said, awkwardness colouring his face. "I'd need to change... I slept in your bra. It was uncomfortable. Could you please, _please_ help me?" he asked and fidgeted uncomfortably.

Oh, poor thing! I had forgotten all about how he needed help in changing clothes.

"Sure thing, but I really need to use the toilet first. I swear, my bladder will explode any minute now," I said, feeling my face get gradually red when I even thought about what I was about to do.

"Yeah, actually, I'd need to do that, too," Percy said and rubbed his neck.

There was a very awkward silence.

"I hope we'll get our own bodies back soon," I said after a while of Percy and I just staring at each other.

"I couldn't have said it any better," Percy agreed. "Umm, should we...?" He motioned towards the bathrooms.

We started to walk slowly towards the bathroom building. Slowly because we wanted to postpone complete awkwardness as long as possible. But we couldn't postpone it forever. We stood outside the door, neither of us able to take hold of the handle and enter the bathrooms.

"I love you, Percy," I said and took a deep breath.

"You, too, Wise Girl," he said, and grinned.

"What are you grinning at, Seaweed Brain?" I asked. This wasn't a good time for grinning.

"Sorry, I grin when I'm nervous," Percy answered, and grinned even more widely.

"Ok, I'm going in," I said and pulled the door open.

The bathroom was packed with people; brushing their teeth, showering, putting makeup on, waiting for their friends...

"Good morning, Percy and Annabeth!" shouted Lucy, when she saw us.

I nudged Percy. Lucy thought he was her big sister. Even Captain Obtuse realized that.

"Hey, Lucy! Did you sleep well?" he asked and stretched his arms out. Lucy ran at him and hugged him.

"Yes, I did. You look like you didn't sleep well, Annabeth. Is there something wrong?"

Were little children always this perceptive?

"Oh, err... Nothing's wrong. I just didn't get enough sleep," Percy explained.

"Are you sure?" Lucy asked, confused. "Because Jenny and Malcolm think there is something off between you and Percy. Are you two going to break up? My mum and dad got divorced before I went to school. But mum wasn't my real mum. My real mum is Athena. I haven't seen her in ages. But you haven't answered my question. Are Jenny and Malcolm right?"

_What?_

"No, no, Lucy. Everything is fine between us," Percy rushed to say, and looked at me. "Right...Percy?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Don't worry, Lucy."

"Okay. That's good," Lucy said and smiled at me. "You know, Percy, you are just perfect for my sister."

Spoken by a true 7-year-old. I smiled back at Lucy.

"I know," I said, trying to reach the correct amount of Percyness.

Next to me, Percy roared with laughter. I slapped him.

"Hush, Percy!"

He went quiet immediately and looked around. A few heads had turned to look at us, and all of their faces looked confused. What had I done? Percy smiled.

"Haha, Percy, still a bit drowsy?" he asked. Then I realized, that I had called him 'Percy' rather than 'Annabeth.'

"Yeah, definitely," I said, "I have to pee." And highly embarrassed, I walked to the nearest unoccupied cubicle.

* * *

Doing my business had never been that awkward and disgusting. After coming out of the cubicle, I washed my hands extra carefully, and tried to forget the feeling of Percy's...you know what I mean, in my hands. Too bad it had been etched into my mind with a branding iron. Percy was waiting me outside the bathrooms. He was looking at me weirdly. How wonderful.

"So, did you need help in changing?" I asked him.

"Oh, yeah. Thanks," he said, and we went to grab some clothes for him from Athena's cabin, and I helped Percy into them in cabin three. When we were done, I realized that it was almost the time for us to leave.

"Well? Shall we go to have breakfast or what? We'll have to leave soon," I said.

Percy nodded. "Yeah, let's go. Umm..."

I wasn't sure if I wanted to hear what he had to say, so I silenced him with my hand.

"Not a word about using the bathroom, or I'll strangle you," I said in a low voice.

"Okay. I'll keep my mouth shut," Percy said and took my hand.

We walked to the Mess Hall, where Percy joined my siblings, and I went to my own, exclusive table. Due to lack of sleep during the night, I'd had a lot of time to plan our trip. The thing was, that since I still wasn't quite sure about what we should be looking for, I hadn't been able to make a very solid plan. But a plan with some holes was always better than no plan at all.

After the breakfast, I waited until Percy was ready, and we left the pavilion together. Many others were leaving at the same time as we were, including the Stoll brothers, who came to us and the four of us started to chat about this and that.

"Chiron made it sound like you two are going on a quest again," Travis said, and raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, what's it about? Kidnapped gods? Olympus in danger again?" asked Connor.

"That's sort of a private matter," I said. I didn't want to share this with Travis and Connor, especially after the guys' night I'd attended earlier.

"Oh, is it really?" Connor asked and smirked impishly.

"You know what else is a private matter, Annabeth?" Travis asked and threw his arm around Percy's back.

"Tell me," Percy said.

Then it happened. Damn those twins and their intuition. Because what happened was that Travis, who still had his arm around Percy, unhooked Percy's bra, and simultaneously Connor pulled my pants down. And by pants, I mean my slacks, _and_ boxers. Audience: dozens of campers. Baffled by the situation, Percy laid his eyes on my lack of pants. Unfortunately, so did I. Then I closed my eyes. All this happened in five seconds. Then, everyone else registered the reason to laugh, and laugh they did. After that, Percy and I realized that we should do something.

"Aaagh!" shrieked Percy while trying desperately to re-hook his bra.

I pulled my pants up as quickly as I could, but too many had seen Percy's privates. Travis and Connor were roaring with laughter, and so was everyone else who'd seen the episode. Except Grover.

"Okay, get back to your own business, people!" he said as he pushed people aside to pass through to us. "Come on, guys. We gotta go soon!"

And just like a bodyguard, he put his arms around me and Percy, and walked us through the still laughing crowd.

"Remind me to kill the Stoll brothers after we come back, okay?" I said. I was absolutely furious. This wasn't funny at all.

"Sure thing. Can I videotape you killing them and post it on YouTube?" Percy asked.

An intriguing idea, but...

"No, because that would attract too many monsters. A spectacular idea, though," I said.

Each of us went to our own cabins to pack. It was an easy task – nectar and ambrosia, Riptide, clothes, and money. With money, I mean ordinary US dollars, and golden drachmas, which are useful when dealing with Greek creatures; gods, people, or monsters. We met again in the commons area between all of the original cabins.

"Okay, we're ready to go!" Grover said and threw his rasta cap in the air.

"Yeah, but where are we going?" Percy asked.

I had figured out an answer.

"I think we need to consult Rachel about this," I said, playing with the camp necklace around my neck.

"But we've already asked Rachel about this," Percy reminded.

"But we can ask her again. We don't have anything else. And she could just tell us about her dream again. Maybe I'll be able to figure something out," I insisted.

The boys didn't want to argue with me, so we left the commons area, and walked to the beach, along which was Rachel's cave. I'd never been there before and I was amazed by the sight of her cave's interior. There were small led lights embedded into the ceiling which reminded me of Calypso's cave on Ogygia. But the atmosphere was completely different than in Calypso's place. Her place was pretty old-fashioned, with linen and wood and natural stone used in the deco. Rachel's oracle cave on the other hand had a huge LCD screen with Nintendo Wii plugged in, and her iPod decked onto a Harman Kardon sound system. The furniture was orange, black, and white with sleek, modern design, and in one corner she had her own small kitchen with a cool bar counter. Our oracle herself was lounged on the sofa.

"Rachel!" I called at her. She lifted her head and looked at us. She smiled when she met my eyes.

"Look who's here! Shouldn't you be on your way already?" she asked and walked to us.

"Yeah, true. But we needed to see you before leaving," I said and nodded slightly. "Some place you've got here!" I motioned around. Rachel grinned smugly.

"Yup, Apollo and his nymphs did a great job with the design," she said. "Not that you wouldn't have done any worse yourself," she added hastily.

I smiled. "Haha, true."

"But I have a feeling that you didn't come here just to talk about my humble abode," she said and raised her eyebrows.

"True again. We need a clue. Do you remember anything else about that dream of yours? Or anything concerning our matter at all?" I asked, praying to all gods possible that we could find some answers.

"I'm not sure..." Rachel said and shrugged.

"Please try, Rachel. We need you," Percy said pleadingly. Grover nodded enthusiastically.

"Okay, okay. I'll try," Rachel said and closed her eyes.

After a moment she sighed and opened her eyes. "Sorry guys, but there's nothing I can do. The Spirit of Delphi doesn't show me anything unless it's what the Fates want. I think you three need to solve this on your own," she said apologetically.

I heard Grover sigh deeply beside me. I have to admit, I wasn't feeling that hopeful myself. Percy placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Don't worry, Annabeth. You will figure it out. You're the smartest person I know," he said sympathetically.

I smiled at him. He was the best boyfriend a girl could ever have. That was why I was so sad about the fact that his touch didn't send tingles down my spine anymore.

"Yeah, I'll figure it out. But I'll need your seaweed-y brain, too. And your reed pipes," I said, addressing the latter to Grover, who nodded.

"My reed pipes are at your service," he said, and pulled his hand up to a mock salute.

"My only advice for you is to go with what you have so far. What we figured out on the beach is a start," Rachel said.

"Thanks Rachel," Percy said, pulling Rachel into a hug.

"No problem at all, Perce. I hope you'll find your answers," she said.

The rest of us said goodbye to her and we left her cave, without feeling any more enlightened than when we first went there. I sunk onto the sand, burying my face in my hands. Percy was beside me in an instant.

"It's gonna be okay, Annabeth. Let's think about what we know, shall we?" he said, and Grover huffed in acceptance behind us.

Percy and Grover sat beside me on the sand and we pondered. We went through everything we'd thought about on the beach the night before. Mischief could be Ares, Atë, or Hermes. The dog could be Ares, and I realized that Hecate was also pictured as a dog. Hades was the best guess for ruin, but that could relate to Atë as well. We had too many options.

"Hey, didn't Rachel mention a small girl, about 6-year-old or something?" Percy remembered after a good deal of despair.

_'Note to self: Remember to kiss Percy more when we get back to normal!'_

"Seaweed Brain, you are amazing!" I shrieked. This was the piece I hadn't given much thought. Ares wasn't a little girl, nor was Hermes. Hades most certainly wasn't. So now, our options were narrowed into two. Atë and Hecate. Mischief and the dog. The goddess sisters.

"Gentlemen, I think we have an answer," I announced. Percy and Grover lifted their heads.

"Finally! Your brain is superior," Grover said and threw his rasta cap in the air.

"Atë and Hecate are sisters, right?" I started to explain the situation to the boys.

"Yeah, so?" Percy asked. Well, maybe he was still a bit slow.

"_So _they are having a fight over something, and I'm quite sure that something is the thing 'that scared the birds' like it says in the prophecy."

"Ohhhh..." both of the boys exclaimed.

"So, I think either one of them has done this to us to get us to work for her," I finished.

There was a moment of silence, and suddenly the air shimmered in front of us, and two figures materialized there.

"Well, isn't it my boy and his crew!" said a low man's voice, which as the figures got clearer I recognized as the Lord of the Sea.

"Hello, lord Poseidon!" Grover said, stood up straight and bowed.

"_His_ crew? You have to be kidding me. This is my daughter and _her_ crew," said my mother from beside Poseidon.

"Lady Athena, how very nice to see you!" Grover said and bowed again.

"Always so polite. Hello there, Grover," Poseidon said and turned to Percy.

"Well, it sure seems like something's happened over here," he said and examined Percy from head to toe. Percy smiled nervously.

"Yeah, you could say that," he chuckled.

My mother turned to look at me.

"Of all the things I have been fearing, I never thought _this _would happen to you because of this boy," she said, more to herself, I thought.

"Oh well, we're on it," I said. "We just finished planning our quest. We're about to leave now."

"Yes, that was a reason why we decided to pay a visit right now," Poseidon said.

This was relatively interesting. The gods weren't exactly allowed to help heroes in their quests, so I wasn't sure at all of why our parents were there.

"Well why did you decide to honor us with your presence?" Grover asked, still very humble looking.

"You really should loosen up a bit, Mister Underwood. We have come in peace," Poseidon smiled at him.

"True. We have come in concern of your quest," mum said.

"Any tips that could help? We sure would need some," Percy suggested.

"Those indeed," said Poseidon and I felt immediately lighter. Finally luck was on our side!

"We can't give you much advice, but we have some information to tell you about 'the ones that scared the birds,'" said mum, her tone a bit hushed, as if she was afraid someone would overhear.

"Yes, the thing is, that you already know all the answers. You've done this before. In fact, together," said Poseidon.

"Really? What is it then?" Percy asked.

"That we cannot tell you, Percy Jackson," said mum. "It's against the ancient rules of god-hero-relations."

"Of course," I muttered under my breath.

"Hey, at least we came here, missy," mum turned to me.

"Yes, of course," Percy rushed to say.

"And we are very grateful," Grover added, nodding furiously.

"Okay, be good, you children. We wish the best of luck on your quest," said Poseidon. "Bye, Percy."

"See ya, dad."

"Good luck, Annabeth, my daughter," mum said and I could swear I saw a momentary smile on her face.

"Thanks, mum," I said and nodded towards the gods. "You too, Poseidon."

"No worries, kid!" he said and smiled. He was way more laid-back than my mother.

"Oh, and by the way, Percy," Poseidon said, grinning before they vanished. "You look stunning. I like your style!"

* * *

**Percy's POV**

Embarrassed by my dad's last comment, I stood up.

"Okay, let's go and find the goddess sisters, then," I said. The others followed my lead and stood up.

"Well, where can we find them? Rachel mentioned a rocky hill," Annabeth pondrerd.

"There are many rocky hills around the Globe. Which one are we looking for?" asked Grover.

"The one with a Greek building on top of it," Annabeth clarified with a hint of sarcasm.

Despite all the brain work and our parents' help, we were still stuck. Maybe...

"Maybe we could ask some other god if they know where Atë and Hecate live at the moment?" I spoke my thoughts aloud.

"Good idea, Percy!" Grover shrieked, but Annabeth swung her hand in disapproval.

"Gods can't help us any further! Didn't you listen to our parents at all, Seaweed Brain?" she said and glared at me and my obvious stupidness. Just when she was done saying I was amazing. Go figure.

"Well, who else knows a lot about places?" I asked and then, suddenly it hit me. We _knew_ a person who travelled a whole lot and knew very much about different locations. The thing was that I wasn't sure if I was allowed to express my idea.

I looked at Annabeth, who looked like a lightbulb had been lit over her head as well, but she looked sternly at me, and nodded her head towards Grover, who was still thinking, that I just decided to shrug.

"Well, let's ask Chiron then?" I suggested.

A long story short: Chiron wasn't much of help.

"I'm sorry, Annabeth, but I have no idea where this hill of yours is located," he said when Annabeth was done explaining the situation. "Nor am I aware of Atë's or Hecate's whereabouts."

Annabeth hung her head. She had done that a lot lately, and I didn't like to see her like that, even though I saw myself.

"I have an idea of how you could find this place," Chiron said slowly. "But that isn't going to be your favourite option."

"Well, do we have much options at the moment?" I asked. "What's your idea? Shoot."

"I assume your friend Thalia would know where to find them. She's a Hunter, and they go to places," he said, bringing up my exact idea from earlier. Not good.

I glanced at Grover, and so did Annabeth. He looked like he would jump off a cliff if he had one anywhere nearby.

"Grover, I understand how you feel," Annabeth said softly, yet again making my voice sound unnaturally feminine. "But sometimes the right decisions are the hardest ones."

Grover nodded. "I know." Then he lifted his head up, his face harder than I'd ever seen before. "Let's do this then."

"Annabeth, do you want to call Artemis? I don't think she'll answer to my call, since I'm a guy," I said and looked at Annabeth. She rolled her eyes.

"Seaweed Brain, I _sound_ like a guy!" she said slapped my shoulder. Usually I wouldn't have even noticed such action, but Annabeth's female body was more fragile.

"Ouch! No reason to hit me!" I moaned. Annabeth gasped.

"I'm so sorry, Percy! I don't know my own strength," she said and stroked my shoulder, sending shudders through my body.

"That was funny," Annabeth grinned. "Now you know how that feels to me."

"Okay, enough of that, let's get cracking already!" Grover stomped his hoof. I sort of understood him. If he had to face Thalia, better do it right away.

"Ok, ok, Grover, I'm on it," I said and lifted my face up towards the sky.

"Lady Artemis! Would you and your lieutenant please pay a visit? We really need your help!" I shouted.

For a moment, nothing happened. Grover shuffled his feet and fiddled with his rasta cap. Annabeth patted his shoulder with compassion. Suddenly, a silvery shimmer appeared, and through that walked two hooded figures. Wow, that sounded dark. They weren't _that_ kind of hooded figures. Their hoods were made of a silvery fabric, and they were attached to cool silver jackets. Not that horrifying anymore, huh? As the figures walked closer, they flung the hoods off their heads, and revealed their faces. The shorter one, about 14 years old girl, had long, auburn hair and beautiful almond-shaped eyes. Her face looked timeless, as if she had looked like that for quite some time. The taller person had piercing, electric blue eyes and a halo of black hair around her head. Our friend, Thalia, the daughter of Zeus.

"Annabeth, it's a pleasure to meet you again. Having second thoughts about not joining my Hunters, are you?" the short girl asked. Yeah, she was Artemis, the goddess of the Hunt. The weird thing was that she didn't address the question to me, but to Annabeth, who stared at her in shock.

"How did you know I was me?" she asked.

I glanced at Thalia, who looked like she had no clue whatsoever about what was happening. She glanced back at me with a questioning look and I tried to message with my eyes that we'd explain everything later.

Artemis gave Annabeth a faint smile. "I'm a goddess, Annabeth. I know stuff," she said. "You know, that," she pointed at Annabeth's complexion, "wouldn't have happened if you had joined us."

"Hey, stop bugging her," I snapped. I knew being a boy was a tough spot for Annabeth.

"I would appreciate if you held a more polite tone, Percy Jackson," Artemis said and turned to me. "If you want my help that is."

"Actually, we'd need to speak to your lieutenant, if that's anyway possible," Annabeth said, motioning towards me and Grover. I looked at Thalia, who looked very tense, however her face was stern. Artemis looked at Grover.

"And what do you want to say to my lieutenant?" she asked, not necessarily addressing the question to Grover, but he stiffened and dropped his cap.

"We..." he started with a pitiful bleat. He cleared his throat and tried again. "We need her help."

Thalia blinked and turned to look at Artemis. "Just give us a moment. They're friends after all."

Artemis gave us all one last look and said: "You have ten minutes, Thalia."

I grabbed Thalia by the hand and dragged her away from the porch, and inside the Big House. We took Thalia all the way to the rec room to get some privacy. She lounged herself on the ping pong table and looked at us curiously.

"Sooo... What's going on?" she asked, keeping her eyes strictly on me. "Annabeth?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Thalia, I'm Annabeth," Annabeth said beside me. Thalia's eyes darted from me to her.

"Percy, there's no time for games, we only have ten minutes," she said. "Now spit it out. Where do you need my help?"

We told her the whole story and she sat there, listening to us, never interrupting. When we were done, she cracked up in laughter.

"That was the most hilarious thing I've ever heard!" she giggled. "I will never let you forget this, Percy. Or should I say, Penny?"

"Ha ha, very funny," I glowered at her. "But we need your help."

"Do you know where we could find a rocky hill with a Greek building on top? Might be the lair of Atë or Hecate," Annabeth asked.

Thalia stopped laughing and closed her eyes. I stole a little peek at Grover who hadn't said anything after speaking up to Artemis. He looked really goat-ish, with his eyes nervous slits, ready to run for it.

"I do remember," Thalia said finally. "I've seen the place. It's in Minneapolis."

"In Minnesota?" Annabeth asked. That would mean a lot of travelling.

"No, in North Carolina," Thalia said and opened her eyes. "There's this forest there, and through that forest goes Ruins Pasture Road. We followed that road with the Hunters and came across a rocky hillside. The road just stops there."

"Of course, Ruins Pasture Road. That's Atë!" Annabeth breathed.

"So that's where we're going? To North Carolina?" I asked. Well, North Carolina was way better than Minnesota. It would be less cold and we'd need less time to travel.

"Yup, that's the place."

"Thalia, could you possibly take us there, since you know the place?" Annabeth asked. I mentally face palmed.

Thalia hesitated, keeping her eyes locked to Annabeth's face.

"I'm... not sure. I have to ask if Artemis needs me. If not, then... maybe," she trailed and we walked back outside.

"Well, did you get the help you needed, heroes?" Artemis asked. Thalia walked straight to her and stood on her right side.

"Yes we did, but we have one more favor to ask, lady Artemis," said Annabeth.

"What can I do for you, Annabeth?" Artemis asked. It was obvious how much she favored girls.

"Could Thalia come and take us to Ruins Pasture Road? She knows the place and everything, so I reckoned -"

"Thalia, do you want to go?" Artemis asked her lieutenant.

"I..." she mumbled. "I'd like to help my friends, milady."

Artemis nodded. "Do as you wish. You'll catch up with us later then."

"Certainly."

"Alright, I must be off then. You heroes play nicely, will you?" Artemis said, and I had a feeling that the latter was addressed to Grover, who looked like he'd faint any second now.

The difference in Grover was almost scary. He used to be almost in love with the nature goddess, since they were both tree huggers. Now, he either looked scared shitless, or really angry whenever he looked at Artemis.

"Bye, lady Artemis. Thank you," I said as the air around her started to shimmer. We closed our eyes to avoid burning our eyes because of the divine light.

"Well, you four should get going then," Chiron said, and held out a pouch full of drachmas.

"Just if you run out of cash," he said. For a zillion-year-old centaur, Chiron was very cool. "How are you going to get there?"

I had an idea for that.

"Shadow travel," I said. The rest turned to look at me, their faces like question marks.

"We still have Mrs. O'Leary, don't we?" I asked Chiron, who nodded.

"Yes, she's still dancing. She actually got pups a few weeks ago," he said. Wow, more gigantic hellhounds. Lovely.

"Can she help us then?" I asked.

"Of course, you can have her," said Chiron. "Now get going! Be safe."

We waved him goodbye and left the Big House. I whistled for Mrs. O'Leary, who soon came running around the corner flanked by a pack of baby-monsters. They all concentrated on giving us a bath.

"So Percy, what is your plan exactly?" Grover asked. His voice sounded still a bit strained, but that could be because of the hellhounds that were surrounding us.

"Shadow travel," I repeated. "Something that Nico taught me before the second Titan War."

"That sounds very un-satyr-friendly!" Grover bleated. "And dangerous!"

"Don't be silly, Grover. Everything we do is dangerous! Besides, you've already been underground and all, so you can do basically anything!" said Annabeth.

"So, how does this thing work then?" Thalia asked me.

"Well, we jump on Mrs. O'Leary's back, tell her where to go, and she'll take us there," I explained.

"But there's so many of us!" Annabeth noted. "Can she carry all of us?"

Again, I have to say that I have the smartest girlfriend ever. The only downside was that Mrs. O'Leary definitely wasn't able to carry all four of us. In fact, I'd never done this with someone else.

"I can try to talk to her and ask," Grover said with a shaky voice. He slowly made his way to Mrs. O'Leary, who was sniffing Thalia's hair. Careful not to even glance at Thalia, he tapped Mrs. O'Leary's leg.

"Hey, Mrs. O'Leary!" he called and the hellhound turned her huge nose to him.

Grover started to make funny growling sounds, which I assumed was some sort of Hellhoundish. After a while, he turned to us, smiling.

"I have an answer to our problem!" he announced.

"What's that?" I asked. We'd been solving problems the whole morning. Finally we would be able to actually go somewhere!

"See, puppies always follow their mother, or at least wild dog puppies, like Mrs. O'Leary's six little charmers here," Grover said and motioned towards the drooling little monsters who had gotten enough of sniffing and licking us, and were now lounged on the grass.

"So what you're saying is..." Annabeth started, and Grover nodded.

"Some of us will ride them, and they will follow Mrs. O'Leary wherever she goes."

"Sweet," I heard Thalia mutter and she walked closer towards the puppy closest to her. Even though they were just puppies, they were enormous, just like their mum.

"I think you should ride Mrs. O'Leary, Thalia. You know where we are going," I said.

"I've never shadow travelled before though," Thalia noted, but I insisted on her going first. I didn't want any delays, which could come if I took us to a wrong place. The sooner we'd get our own bodies back, the better.

Thalia climbed on Mrs. O'Leary's back. She let out a shriek when the hellhound stood up. We followed Thalia's lead and soon all four of us had our own furry steeds.

"Just tell her the exact address, and hold on tight!" I told Thalia.

"Okay. Errm, Ruins Pasture Road, Minneapolis, North Carolina," she told Mrs. O'Leary, who barked in enthusiasm and took off running.

I tightened my grip on my puppy's fur and soon the whole pack of hellhound puppies rocketed behind their mother. They ran all the way through the camp grounds, to the forest. There, they increased their speed, making Grover howl in fear. I saw Mrs. O'Leary head straight towards Zeus' fist.

"No! You'll crash, you stupid dog! Percy, this is all your fault!" Thalia yelled, but I knew better.

"Hold on tight, Pinecone Face!" I shouted back, and just when I had said it, Mrs. O'Leary and Thalia vanished into thin air as a wisp of shadow. The puppies knew what to do, and soon the rest of us were a part of the darkness. We had finally started our quest, and despite all of the terrifying sounds and darkness around me, I was extremely happy.

* * *

**Uh-oh, Thalia's here! How will Grover manage? What did you think? Hated it, loved it? Remember what I said about those reviews!**

**Until next time, which hopefully is sooner :)**

**Peace, love, PJO!**

**Luv,**

**AC**


	7. Author's Note: Should I?

**Author's Note!**

**Dear readers, I'm working on the next chapter, but I have something to ask you all. I'm really keen on Twilight and when talking about fics, I'm quite the Bella/Alice fan. Now I have something to ask you, dear readers: should I write a Bellice story of my own? There is a poll on my profile, so if you would please be kind and answer that. I feel like writing one, but I don't know if people would read it.**

**Thank you for reading this, I'll be back soon with another chapter of The SWAP team!**

**Until then,**

**Peace, love, PJO!**

**Luv,**

**AC**


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